Ita Airways: Only Brussels approval is now missing for the deal with Lufthansa

We were one step away from celebrating the long-awaited wedding. The concentration operation, which involved the entry of Lufthansa’s Ita Airways into the capital, was officially reported to the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Competition this afternoon. In this context, the German airline will purchase 41% of Ita’s shares for 325 million euros within the scope of capital increase.

The agreement was officially reached in June 2023. A minority share has been determined for now, but the German airline says the “purchase agreement also includes options to allow Lufthansa to acquire the remaining shares of Ita at a later date.” .

The interim deal will now be subject to review by the European administration, which will assess whether the deal violates European free market and antitrust regulations. But we are just waiting for the green light from Berlin and Rome, which seems to be the case.

“Ita Airways and the Lufthansa Group will begin cooperating at a commercial and operational level immediately after receiving the desired merger control authorization for the investment. Lufthansa states in a note that this can happen as soon as possible according to this pre-established procedure. January 2024. Ita as a network airline “will cooperate closely with the Lufthansa Group to benefit from synergies with the Group.”

The chairman of Confindustria Bonomi also expresses his satisfaction: “Considering how much money the Italians have spent over the years to preserve the old Alitalia, this was an operation that everyone had hoped for: impressive figures. Both me and my colleague. The German company Confindustria Bdi was able to resolve this situation and “We had jointly intervened with the European Commission so that the industrial plan of the new airline could finally be implemented.”

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Source: Today IT

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