(Milan) Long in the running, the airline Lufthansa, associated with the Italian shipping group MSC, offered on Monday to acquire the majority of ITA Airways, born from the ashes of Alitalia and controlled by the Italian state.
Posted at 1:24 p.m.
Updated at 2:39 p.m.
This proposal from the German giant comes two years after a failed attempt to enter the capital of Alitalia, which had been placed under public administration in 2017 and was struggling to find a buyer.
The Italian company “has today received an expression of interest from the MSC group and Lufthansa to acquire the majority of ITA Airways”, she announced.
According to ITA Airways, the two groups have requested that “the Italian government retain a minority stake in the company”.
In the wake of Alitalia’s cessation of activity after 74 turbulent years of flight, ITA Airways took off on October 15, in an air market that is struggling to recover from the turbulence caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Over the years, the Italian state had spent more than 13 billion euros to try to refloat the national company. But nothing helped, Alitalia accumulated losses of 11.4 billion euros between 2000 and 2020 before going out of business.
ITA Airways, which will have taken less time to find potential buyers than its ancestor, said it was “satisfied that the work done in recent months to give better prospects to the company is beginning to have the expected results”.
The young company recorded a turnover of 86 million euros between mid-October and the end of 2021, 50% less than expected, due to the wave of the Omicron variant which disrupted the aviation sector. A total of 1.26 million passengers were transported over this period.
While ITA Airways aims for break-even accounts in the second quarter of 2023, it suffered an operating loss of 170 million euros in 2021, in accordance with its strategic plan.
“With half of the revenue and a higher cost of fuel, we were able to achieve the objective set out in the plan” thanks to savings on operational costs, its president Alfredo Altavilla said last Thursday.
“Positive Synergy”
MSC confirmed ITA Airways’ announcement, claiming to have expressed to the Italian government its interest in acquiring a “majority” stake in the Italian company, jointly with Lufthansa.
Such a transaction could generate “positive synergies for both companies in the freight and passenger transport sectors,” the Italian group said in a press release.
An ITA spokesman said on Sunday that a new strategic plan would be presented at a board meeting scheduled for January 31.
A ” data room “, secure place to store key financial documents, often to allow the usual verifications before a merger or acquisition, would be open “in the coming days”, he added.
The young company had 2,141 employees in December, less than the 2,800 recruitments initially announced for 2021. In 2022, it will hire “at least 1,000 more people, especially seafarers”, according to Mr. Altavilla.
By way of comparison, Alitalia had 10,500 employees, including those in ground services and maintenance, branches that will be sold separately.
ITA Airways announced in December that it had placed a firm order for 28 aircraft with Airbus, comprising seven single-aisle A220s, eleven A320neos and ten long-haul A330neos.
At the last catalog price published in 2018 by the aircraft manufacturer – but never applied due to the discounts granted – the transaction amounts to nearly 4.7 billion euros.