Lufthansa acquires 41% stake in Italian airline ITA Airways – Kommersant

Lufthansa Group and Italian Ministry of Economy and Finance announcedthat the German airline acquired a minority stake in the Italian state carrier ITA Airways (formerly Alitalia). Lufthansa bought out 41% of ITA shares for €325 million. At the same time, Lufthansa has an option to increase its share in the authorized capital of the Italian company. According to sources Bloombergin the future the German company will be able to increase its share to 90%.

ITA was created in 2020 on the basis of the airline Alitalia, which ceased to exist due to financial problems. So far, the sole shareholder of ITA has been the Italian government, which has been looking for a potential buyer for the troubled airline all this time.

Lufthansa has already said it intends to increase ITA’s fleet size from its current 71 aircraft to 94 by 2027. By the same time, the company’s staff will have to increase to 5.5 thousand employees. ITA’s revenue, according to the plan of the Italian government and Lufthansa, should grow from €2.5 billion expected at the end of this year to €4.1 billion in 2027.

Kirill Sarkhanyants