“The data room is open. Lufthansa is interested,” Italian Finance Minister Giancarlo Giorgetti said on Tuesday during a government press conference. His ministry currently owns Itas and is handling the sale. The government aims to find a stable industrial partner who will guarantee Alitalia’s successor airline a secure future, the politician from the right-wing Lega said.
The container and cruise giant MSC had previously withdrawn from the race for Ita. Managers of the Swiss company had publicly stated that they were no longer interested. Lufthansa, on the other hand, did not comment on its plans on Tuesday and pointed out that it was still interested in Ita.
MSC and Lufthansa had previously tried to buy 80 percent of Ita’s shares. MSC would have taken over the lion’s share. However, under the previous government of former ECB boss Mario Draghi, the US fund Certares was awarded further negotiations with the Italians. However, these did not lead to any result. Even before his appointment to the Ministry of Finance, Giorgetti was a supporter of a partnership with Lufthansa.
Via XETRA, Lufthansa shares temporarily gained 0.74 percent to EUR 7.49.
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