Italy has just taken a turn in the sale of the airline Ita Airways, born from the ashes of the old Alitalia, by favoring a consortium made up of the Certares fund and the airlines Delta Airlines and Air France-KLM, with whom they have started negotiations exclusive. It is a slam of the other interested parties, the maritime giant MSC and the German airline Lufthansa, with whom they had been speaking since the beginning of the year.
According to the Italian Ministry of Economy, the offer of Certares, Delta and Air France-KLM responds better to the “objectives set by the Prime Minister’s decree”. However, the Government specifies, the agreements will be binding if the contents are “fully satisfactory for the public shareholder”.
The Italian press explains that this is a last minute decision and that the Italian Government of Mario Draghi has preferred this offer because with it the State would continue to control around 45% of the company’s shares and would keep two of the five members of the board of directors. In other words, it would have a certain margin of control over the future of the company and veto power for strategic decisions. Instead, MSC and Lufthansa wanted to leave only 20% to the Italian Ministry of Economy.
Initially, the US fund Certares would pay around 600 million euros for 55% of Ita and Air France-KLM and Delta would enter in a later phase, buying Certares 9.9% and 5% of its share, respectively. .
This route, by which the Italian State would maintain a presence in Ita, could have been chosen thinking that a future right-wing government would like it more, since the coalition led by Giorgia Meloni, of the Brothers of Italy, has every chance of win the elections on September 25. Meloni has asked to freeze the sale of Ita until the next executive takes office. However, the far-right already made it very clear yesterday that she had not appreciated anything that Draghi had moved: “I remember that the current government should only do the minimum, I do not think that such a strategic issue is within its competence,” he said from Pescara, where he continued his electoral campaign. “It is another piece of Italy that is leaving and I will do everything I can to prevent it,” she added, when there are still more than three weeks left before the appointment at the polls.
