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ITA plane at Rome Fiumicino Airport
Photo: Remo Casilli / REUTERS
In the negotiations to buy a minority stake in the Italian airline ITA Airways, Lufthansa is aiming to reach an agreement in principle before the end of the year, according to a media report.
The German airline has accepted all the conditions imposed by the Italian government for strategy and corporate management at ITA Airways, the newspaper "Il Messaggero" reported on Tuesday.
Lufthansa declined to comment.
According to »Il Messaggero«, Lufthansa wants to subscribe to a capital increase of 200 to 250 million euros to get involved with ITA.
The Germans should initially hold a share of 35 percent, which should then be increased over time.
ITA boss Fabio Lazzerini recently said that talks with the German airline were very cooperative.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni gave the go-ahead for the sale of a minority stake in ITA Airways just before Christmas.
Since the beginning of the year, the government in Rome has been trying to privatize the restructured, downsized Alitalia successor.
Lufthansa initially wanted to take over a majority together with the Swiss shipping group MSC.
However, the government then wanted to let the US financial investor Certares get a chance, but this failed.
Finally, MSC got out of the bidding race.
Lufthansa had repeatedly expressed its interest in a subsidiary in Italy.
Italy is the most important European foreign market for the German group;
among other things, the Lufthansa subsidiary Air Dolomiti connects several Italian cities with German hubs such as Munich or Frankfurt.
Most recently, the Lufthansa board of directors around CEO Carsten Spohr had drawn the anger of the federal government: The managers want to pay themselves millions in bonuses for 2021 - although the federal government had forbidden exactly that when it saved the group in the pandemic with state aid worth billions.
che/Reuters
