The maritime colossus Msc and the giant of the skies Lufthansa ask for the majority of Ita Airways, the national airline took off on 15 October, taking the place of Alitalia. The twist arrives on Monday afternoon, January 24, in the middle of the elections for the new head of state. “The MSC group has expressed to the Italian government its interest in acquiring a majority stake in Ita Airways”, confirms a note. “The MSC group aims to create a partnership with the Italian government and the Lufthansa company as an industrial partner of the project”. “Lufthansa has already expressed its interest in taking part in the initiative,” the communication continues. It now remains to understand what Air France and Delta Air Lines will do.
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The indiscretions
“MSC’s interest derives from the possibility of activating positive synergies for both companies in both the cargo and passenger sectors in which the group is a global leader”, the communication continues. MSC and Lufthansa, “following today’s expression of interest, require an exclusivity period of 90 working days and subject to regulatory approvals and due diligence“. The news of a 40% entry by Lufthansa had emerged in recent days, but had been more or less explicitly denied by both companies. And there was no mention of Msc. In reality, the negotiations were already at an advanced stage – confirms a source – aided by a political agreement that was strengthened between November and December last year. Who has followed the dossier explains to Corriere della Sera that in recent weeks the leaders of Ita Airways they explained how in fact the company has satisfied Lufthansa’s requests of the past months: a leaner company, with half of the planes, a new company contract and above all restructured since being different from Alitalia it has no debts – and the EU condemnation for state aid – of the old company.
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The tricolor company
“The airline announces that today it has received an expression of interest from MSC and Lufthansa to acquire the majority of Ita Airways”, confirms a note from the Italian airline. «The MSC group has agreed with Lufthansa its participation in the partnership on terms to be defined during the due diligence. Both MSC and Lufthansa have expressed the desire that the Italian government maintain a minority stake within the company “, underlines the company which says it is” satisfied that the work done in recent months to offer the best prospects to the company is beginning to have the expected results, that is, a company recognized as valid for partners of international caliber both on passenger transport and on cargo ». It will now be up to the Ita board of directors – which will meet on January 31 – to examine “the details of the expression of interest itself”.
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The strategies
The agreement between the two airlines and MSC will almost cause an earthquake even in the European skies if the deal ends positively. Ita Airways had joined the SkyTeam alliance for a year – where Delta Air Lines, Air France-KLM are located – and at this point he will have to leave to join StarAlliance, the rival alliance, in the coming months. In the event of a majority of MSC-Lufthansa, the balance on the lucrative routes over the Atlantic (Europe-USA) will also change: Ita Airways will thus fly with Lufthansa and, on the other side of the ocean, with United Airlines which will have to guarantee continuations in the rest of the USA and other parts of the Americas not covered by the Ita and Lufthansa network.
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From Brussels
In the morning, a spokeswoman for the European Commission explained that there was no longer the ban for Lufthansa from making acquisitions imposed when the EU had authorized the recapitalization of the company (6 billion euros public) for Covid since the company has more than 75% of the aid received returned. “We have approved the plan for the recapitalization of Lufthansa under certain conditions – explained the spokeswoman -. The conditions also included, among other things, an acquisition ban. Lufthansa remains committed under most conditions, but considering that most of the aid has been repaid, the ban on acquisitions and the limits on the remuneration of managers have been removed ”.
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The Msc
Msc (Mediterranean Shipping Company) is a maritime giant in the shipping and logistics sector. It was founded in 1970 and is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, where it is controlled by the Aponte family. The group has a cargo division (Msc, Til, Medlog, Msc Shipmanagement limited) and a passenger division (Msc Cruises, Grandi Navi Veloci, Snav): in cruises they transported 2.7 million customers in 2019 – before Covid – in 102 countries visited and 239 itineraries. Over 100,000 people work in the group.
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The reactions
“The expression of interest from MSC and Lufthansa is positive news for the future of the national airline,” said Fnta representing the pilots and flight attendants. “These are two extremely solid partners who could guarantee Ita Airways a future of development with an excellent international positioning”. The deputy of Leu Stefano Fassina has a different opinion: “The majority of Ita must remain with the Italian state,” he comments. «Industrial partnerships are necessary and, as we have repeatedly reported to Ita’s management at the hearing, cargo has great potential for Italy. Therefore, the offers from Lufthansa and MSC must be evaluated with great attention, but the government must immediately clarify Italy’s position “.
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