Germany’s Lufthansa wants to acquire a 20% stake in state-owned Italian airline ITA Airways, the successor to Alitalia, and its partner MSC is bidding for a 60% stake, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters on Tuesday.
The Italian state would initially keep the remaining 20%, the source said. The Lufthansa-MSC duo made their offer to acquire a majority stake in ITA on Monday.
→ ITA Airways becomes first Italian A350 operator.
MSC, also known as Mediterranean Shipping Group, has filed an offer together with Lufthansa and is awaiting the next steps, a company spokesperson said, declining to comment further.
MSC and Lufthansa face a rival bid from U.S. financial investor Certares which is working with Air France-KLM (AIRF.PA) and Delta Air Lines (DAL.N).
Delta confirmed on Tuesday that it would not be a financial investor in ITA, but said in a statement that it would seek to build on an existing commercial partnership with ITA.
Italian media reports said the Alitalia successor was worth between around 1 billion and 2 billion euros. A Lufthansa spokesperson did not want to comment on the figures.
A decision is expected in the coming weeks about which of the two bidder groups will be invited to launch exclusive negotiations. Italy is aiming to complete a sale by the end of June.
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