Alitalia sees Delta offer EUR 200m for 20% stake
US airline Delta [NYSE:DAL] is offering EUR 200m for a 20% stake in troubled Italian airline Alitalia, Italian-language daily La Stampareported, citing a source with knowledge of the matter.
The article noted that Delta is bidding in tandem with Air France-KLM [EPA:AF], which is also looking to take a 20% holding. The item said that Air France is looking to invest less than EUR 200m.
The report noted that Ferrovie dello Stato (FS), the state-owned Italian railway network, is looking to invest EUR 200m-EUR 300m for a 20-30% stake while the Italian Treasury would convert EUR 150m of its EUR 900m bridge loan to Alitalia into a 15% equity stake in the airline.
The report added that Alitalia requires investments of around EUR 1bn.
The report said that the industrial plan being put foward by Delta/Air France would reduce Alitalia's fleet from the present 118 to just over 100 and reduce the workforce by 3,000 to 8,000-9,000.
The original article appeared in print; Page 19