Air France KLM confirmed today (September 8) that it wants to buy a stake in Alitalia.
The airline tried to buy the Italian national carrier earlier this year but pulled out after failure to agree a job cuts plan with the unions.
A group of 16 Italian investors has now submitted a ”preliminary bid” for the airline which went into receivership last month.
But AF KLM said in a statement that it is ”ready to take out a minority stake in the new company's capital alongside the investors identified by the Intesa Sanpaolo bank.”
The new centre right Italian government, led by Silvio Berlusconi, has said it plans to sell off the profitable areas of Alitalia and liquidate the rest.
Augusto Fantozzi, Alitalia”s extraordinary administrator, has already said that the bid by the investors group Compagnia Aerea Italiana "seems" to meet the conditions Italy's new recently bankruptcy law.
Under the government”s plan, it is understood that the rump of Alitalia will be merged with another Italian airline Air One to form a smaller operation.
Under the deal, the government would also sell its 49% stake in Alitalia.
The investors are said to be ready to invest millions of euros in the new project and to appoint Roberto Colaninno, chairman and ceo of the Piaggio motorcycle company, as chairman of the new Alitalia.
For more information, visit www.airfrance.com.
Stanley Slaughter
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