Lufthansa (LH, Frankfurt International) has warned that it may have to seek protection from creditors if its planned EUR9 billion euro (USD10.1 billion) bailout fails to win shareholder approval in a vote on June 25 during an extraordinary general meeting.

German billionaire Heinz Hermann Thiele, the company’s biggest shareholder, has threatened to vote against it after buying up extra shares and raising his stake to more than 15%. By the close of trading on June 16, he had a 15.5% stake, according to Reuters.

Lufthansa’s management board “currently assumes that attendance at the extraordinary general meeting on June 25 will be less than 50%,” the carrier said in a statement on June 17. Thiele “believes it is possible that the stabilisation package could miss the two-thirds majority of the votes cast in this case. This would mean that Deutsche Lufthansa AG might have to apply for bankruptcy protection proceedings [...] if another solution is not immediately found.”

Protective Shield Proceedings, a German version of Chapter 11 bankruptcy, keep a company’s management in charge while tasking it to come up with a survival plan within three months.

In an interview with the newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Thiele declined to say whether he would vote against the deal, which would give the German government a 20% stake in the flag carrier and two seats on its supervisory board. But he made it clear he was not satisfied with it as “not all the possibilities have been exhausted.”

“Transparency is lacking because [chairman and CEO Carsten] Spohr has not named the alternatives dealt with by the federal government. The board has to put them on the table. I appreciate Mr Spohr, but I am not satisfied with his statement that everything has been checked and that my own ideas have not been enforceable. I think one could have negotiated more intensively,” Thiele said. “The Lufthansa boss should develop a feel for what the major shareholders think.”

On June 17, following the publication of Thiele’s comments, German Finance Minister Olaf Scholz denied that the government’s rescue plan was at risk. He said he expected shareholders to vote in favour of the package, Germany’s Deutsche Welle broadcaster reported.

Lufthansa shareholders must register by June 20 if they are to attend the shareholder meeting. Around 85% of them are based in Germany. If more than 50% participate, a simple majority would pass any resolutions, Lufthansa said.