ITA Airways, the continuing operator of Alitalia, announced in a press release that it has received a joint Expression of Interest from MSC Group and Lufthansa for a majority stake.
The bidders said they want the Italian state to maintain a minority stake in the company, and asked for 90 days of exclusivity – that is, three months in which ITA will not receive any new bids – to work out the details.
While ITA’s statement does not detail what MSC and Lufthansa’s individual stake will be, nor the total percentage of the share package they are willing to acquire, it had previously been reported that the percentage Lufthansa intended to buy was close to 40%, so it would not be unusual for MSC to have a similar stake and the Italian state to retain 20% of the total.
The Italian company said it is «satisfied» with the work done in these months to offer the best prospects, and that this work «is starting to show the expected results,» and says it will address the expression of interest at its next board meeting.
This is the first formal Expression of Interest in the company, which since its birth has been looking for a commercial and operational partner to gain a foothold in the domestic and intra-European markets since without fresh capital it will not be able to quickly reverse the state of its accounts. In the months it has been operating, it has lost 170 million euros and although this hemorrhage is expected to slow down as the pandemic mitigates its impact, it is unsustainable in the long term.
Lufthansa and MSC have a big challenge ahead, but the reward is great: in the ever-dynamic Italian market, there is room for a tour operator and one of Europe’s largest airline holdings. It remains to be seen what will be the conditions of the new ITA under that command. Or any other.
