MSC abandons negotiations to buy ITA Airways

Only Lufthansa and Certares remain in the field. The Board of the Italy Ministry of Economy and Finance (MEF) has assigned the powers to the new President Antonino Turicchi who will manage the sale of ITA 100% controlled by the MEF.

Gianluigi Aponte’s MSC group in a statement explained that “it has already informed the competent authorities that it is no longer interested in participating in the acquisition of a share in ITA Airways, not recognizing the conditions in the current procedure.”

After the Economy Minister, Giancarlo Giorgetti, had decided on October 31 not to extend the exclusive negotiation with Certares, underway since August 31, the consortium between the freight and passenger transport giant (MSC) and Lufthansa was back on track in August. When they had proposed the purchase of 80% of ITA Airways (60% MSC and 20% Lufthansa), on Thursday, November 17, only Lufthansa showed up at the opening of the data room with their advisors.

Lufthansa has access to ITA’s data room.

In this context, the US strategic fund Certares, which in a commercial alliance with Air France-KLM and Delta had proposed to purchase 50% plus one share of ITA, awaits further developments. A formalization of the interest is, therefore, expected from Lufthansa, which, through its spokesperson, makes it known that it has no comments on the matter.

At the end of October, Lufthansa had made it known that it “remains interested in the Italian market,” explaining that “we are monitoring the further sale process of ITA and remain interested in a real privatization of the airline.” The new President Turicchi will manage the transfer.

The new President of ITA, Antonino Turicchi, will have to deal with the “sale” issue to whom, on the recommendation of the Board of Directors of the MEF, he has assigned powers over strategic operations (the sale), the finance sector, strategy, communication, and institutional relations.

The CEO of Ita Airways, Fabio Lazzerini, confirmed he will take care of the company’s operations and personnel management. The new powers were assigned by the board of directors in which sit Gabriella Alemanno and Ugo Arrigo, alongside the independent director, Frances Ousleey (confirmed).

The new scenario after the withdrawal of Mediterranean Shipping Company, MSC

The withdrawal of MSC, which has a very deep-rooted presence in Italian ports, changes the cards on the table. The MSC-Lufthansa offer focused on the integration of cargo and passenger transport and on the intramodality between sea-rail and air transport.

The strong point of this offer was the synergies with cargo, a segment that has been experiencing consistent growth for some time and which has better resisted the pandemic emergency.

With the Lufthansa network, Milan Malpensa would establish itself as a logistics hub and Rome Fiumicino as a hub for passenger traffic, a gateway to Africa.

The synergies would also be extended to Air Dolomiti, the Italian subsidiary of Lufthansa, which in the medium-haul segment ensures daily connections from the main Italian airports to the Munich and Frankfurt hubs.

This “opening” of the Italian government to Lufthansa, however, could be far from decisive, also because in recent months (and before becoming Prime Minister) Giorgia Meloni has always criticized the decision to deliver ITA exclusively to Lufthansa

In any case, again according to the leading press, the ministry and Lufthansa are considering a sale “of 65-70% of the shares of Ita Airways, leaving the remaining 30-35% in public hands with a transaction estimated at around 600 million euros for the sale of the majority stake, including here also the 250 million of the third tranche of capital increase.”