Over the years, Lufthansa Group has been continuously eyeing to acquire Italy’s ITA Airways. However, it lost its bid to Air France-KLM in the first round of the sale. Yesterday, news has emerged that the group will be giving a second try to acquire by the end of April.
Here are what we have known so far.
Lufthansa Group To Acquire Stakes On ITA Airways By The End Of April
On January 18, 2023, Lufthansa announced its interest to submit an offer to acquire a stake in ITA. The plan was to agree on the initial acquisition of a minority stake as well as on options to purchase the remaining shares at a later date.
This is because the group sees Italy as the most important market outside of its home markets and the US. Italy’s importance for both business and private travel lies in its strong export-oriented economy and status as one of Europe’s top vacation spots.
Well, these talks and negotiations seem to be positive and Lufthansa’s CEO Carsten Spohr is optimistic that a result will be reached within the agreed deadline of April 24th.
This positive news came after the first bidder and winner Air France-KLM Group withdrew the second bid giving another chance to the German giant to negotiate.
ITA Airways is in a desperate situation as it has made a huge loss of 486 million euros last year. Not only the profit loss affected the newly branded airline but also the political situation in Italy also contributed to the future of the airline being gloomy.
Lufthansa’s plan is to take over 40 percent of the Alitalia successor through a capital increase and then secure the remaining shares through options for a second step. Since January, exclusive negotiations have been going on with the Italian state as the sole owner of the airline.
It is still unclear how the group will be operating ITA if acquired but we all can expect it could be carriers like Brussels or LOT Polish airways. In the worst case, the airline will be another subsidiary like Edelweiss. Furthermore, I am hoping that ITA Airways’ frequent flyer program – Volare – will be more useful since the program is downhill in SkyTeam.
Summary
Lufthansa Group is eyeing to finalize taking over Italy’s ITA Airways by the end of April after Air France-KLM pulled out from the competition.
Whilst the group is confident about buying 40% of the stakes, there are regulatory approvals still pending by the European authorities but if everything goes well, the partial takeover could be completed in the summer. Let us see how ITA will change once it is absorbed to Lufthansa.
