Germany sold its remaining shares and Lufthansa is fully private again

The Economic Stabilization Fund of the Federal Republic of Germany (WSF) sold its remaining shares in Deutsche Lufthansa AG, thus closing the rescue of the airline that had been implemented in 2020 at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic crisis.

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At that time, the state had acquired 20% of Lufthansa’s share capital for 306 million euros under the condition that it would divest itself of this stake by October 2023 at the latest, which was finally brought forward by almost a year. WSF still retained the 6.2% that was sold this week for 74.4 million euros.

Deutsche Lufthansa AG is thus completely back in private hands, and the German state walked away with a profit of 700 million euros.

In November last year the company had already finished repaying the state the 9 billion euros in aid it had received as a part of the bailout.

«On behalf of all Lufthansa employees, I would like to thank the current and previous German government and all German taxpayers for their support of our Lufthansa during the most severe financial crisis in our company’s history,» said Carsten Spohr, Chairman of the Board of Management and CEO of Deutsche Lufthansa AG.

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«The stabilization of Lufthansa was successful and is also paying off financially for the German government and thus for the taxpayer (…) Lufthansa is once again fully in private hands. All Lufthansa employees worldwide will continue to work hard to strengthen our position among the world’s leading airline groups, for example through a broad-based premium product and quality offensive,» he concluded.

At holding level, between January and June 2022 Lufthansa Group (which includes Lufthansa – and Germanwings and Eurowings Discover, Austrian, SWISS – and Edelweiss, Eurowings, Brussels Airlines and other aviation services companies) posted total revenues 140% higher than in the same period of 2021, reaching €13,825m and operating expenses of €14,964m (+81%), strongly pushed up by higher oil prices. Net loss was EUR -325 million (a significant recovery compared to EUR -1,805 million in the first six months of 2021). Adjusted EBITDA was positive at EUR 930 million (versus EUR -750 million in the previous year).

In the first six months of 2022 Lufthansa Group carried 42.38 million passengers (+322%). Capacity (in ASK) grew 162%, while demand (RPK) grew 297%. The load factor stood at 74.3%, 25 percentage points higher than during the first six months of 2021.