Having fought over Air Berlin, Lufthansa Group and easyJet (U2, London Luton) are once again set to go head-to-head as they seek to snap up the assets of another of Europe's mordibund carriers, Alitalia (AZ, Rome Fiumicino).
In a stock market disclosure issued following the passing of a Monday, October 16 deadline for the submission of binding offers, the UK budget carrier said only that it had submitted an expression of interest for "certain assets of a restructured Alitalia"
For its part, Lufthansa Group has confirmed to Reuters that it had submitted an offer focussing on "parts" of Alitalia's "global network traffic and European and domestic point-to-point business".
As such, quoting three sources, Italy's Corriere della Sera reported earlier this week that Lufthansa's bid entailed a EUR500 million euro (USD590 million) offer covering an unspecified number of Alitalia's fleet, flight crews, and slots. However, it is conditioned on the retrenchment of 6,000 of Alitalia's 12,000-strong workforce and the reduction of its short- and medium-haul flights.
In September this year, nine firms were reported to have conducted a due diligence of Alitalia's books including private equity firms Elliot Group, Cerberus Capital, and Greybull Capital (owner of defunct UK carrier Monarch Airlines) as well as IAG International Airlines Group, Etihad Airways (Alitalia's current 49% shareholder), Delta Air Lines, easyJet, Lufthansa, and Ryanair (which has since withdrawn). Alitalia has since confirmed it received seven envelopes containing bids by the evening deadline of October 16.
