© Reuters. Lufthansa AG CEO Carsten Spohr speaks during the flagship German airline’s annual results press conference in Frankfurt, Germany, March 3, 2023. REUTERS/Kay Waffenbach
Written by Angelo Louvre
ROME (Reuters) – Lufthansa is close to closing a deal with Italy’s treasury ministry to buy a 40 percent stake in state-owned airline ITA, with the aim of taking full control of the company in 2026, a source told Reuters on Thursday.
The source close to ITA said the German carrier would pay between 320-330 million euros ($352-363 million) to buy the initial minority stake in the Italian company.
CEO Carsten Spohr is due to meet Italian Economy Minister Giancarlo Giorgetti in Rome on Thursday to finalize talks that began in January but have been extended beyond the initial April 24 deadline.
Lufthansa declined to comment, while Italy’s Treasury Ministry did not respond to a request for comment. The source was not allowed to speak to the press, so his name was not revealed.
ITA, the successor to loss-making flagship Italian airline Alitalia, took to the air in 2021 as a state-owned company and incurred losses of around 486 million euros last year due to the continuing effects of the pandemic and rising fuel costs.
In a decree approved in December to facilitate the sale of ITA, Prime Minister Georgia Meloni’s government made it clear that another airline should end up taking control of the carrier.
($1 = 0.9084 euros)