The federal government and Lufthansa are still at odds as to how the airline can be saved. The state could at least get the company shares at a bargain price.
Frankfurt / Main (dpa) - Lufthansa has published an interim report on the ongoing rescue negotiations with the federal government.
According to a mandatory announcement to the stock exchange on Thursday, the total package has a volume of 9 billion euros. In addition to a silent participation of the federally owned economic stabilization fund (WSF), it is about an undisclosed loan and a direct participation of the federal government in the share capital of the Dax group. The state also wants to be represented on the supervisory board.
The company reports that various options are discussed regarding the federal government's equity participation up to a blocking minority of 25 percent plus one vote. In a variant, the WSF could already be used for the nominal value of the share of EUR 2.56 - at a current share price of around EUR 8.
The entry of the federal government could be preceded by a capital cut, in which shares of the previous owners would be partially withdrawn and then, in a second step, raise the share capital back to the previous level. The dividend for 2019 had already been canceled for the shareholders. If the state joined, future dividends would also be prohibited.
In Berlin, the ministries involved in business and finance merely announced that the negotiations were ongoing. This was also confirmed by Lufthansa. Economics Minister Peter Altmaier (CDU) had declared the company "silverware of our economy" in an interview with the "Bild-Zeitung", the sale of which would be prevented.
The negotiations have been dragging on for weeks. Representatives of the Union faction had recently campaigned for a more cautious state participation. Lufthansa management has repeatedly warned against excessive government influence on corporate decisions and excessive debt, most recently at the Annual General Meeting on Tuesday. There, Lufthansa boss Carsten Spohr also deviated somewhat from his alternative scenario of a protective shield procedure. No one in Berlin wanted this either, he had assured the shareholders. Such a self-administered bankruptcy would probably have meant harder cuts for Lufthansa creditors and staff.
Like the entire industry, the Lufthansa Group was hit hard by the corona shock. With the exception of freight, the virus has almost brought global air traffic to a standstill. Lufthansa has reduced its passenger operations to a minimum and now flies just under 1 percent of the passengers from the previous year. The daily number of guests dropped from an average of 350,000 to around 3,000.
Despite massive short-time working, many fixed costs continue, so that the company loses around 800 million euros in cash reserves per month. In addition to interest rates, the kerosene contracts, which had assumed that the price of oil would be much higher than the current one, had a negative impact. According to Spohr, Lufthansa can only keep the co-payments made up to now for short-time work benefits of more than 80,000 employees for a limited time.
The multinational corporation is also negotiating with other countries for help in the corona crisis. Switzerland has already released a 1.4 billion euro credit line, largely secured by the state. Austria and Belgium insist on location guarantees for their help. Lufthansa wants to demand trust and small loans from its customers if it only issues vouchers instead of the legally required ticket refunds. The EU Commission has so far opposed this project, which is also supported by the German government and has a volume of 1.8 billion euros.
In April, the Dax Group reported a first quarterly operating loss of EUR 1.2 billion in a mandatory announcement to the stock exchange and announced even higher sums for the current months. You couldn't save yourself on your own, it was said at the time when the quarterly figures were presented. After earning billions in the past, his team has already prepared Spohr for tough times. After the crisis, Lufthansa will probably have a fleet that is 100 aircraft smaller. This results in a calculated surplus of 10,000 employees. Among other things, the operation of the "Germanwings" subsidiary is to be discontinued.