(Finance) – Lufthansa would have offered concessions to the EU Antitrust, among these those on the Milan Linate slots, to have the green light for theacquisition of a minority stake in Ita Airways. An offer, that of the German company, which arrives a few days before the expiry of the first phase of the EU investigation into the operation, scheduled for January 15th. This is what the Bloomberg agency reports, citing sources close to the dossier.
L’European antitrust will have to decide whether to give the green light to the Ita Airways-Lufthansa wedding or continue with the in-depth analysis and thus move on to the phase 2, which provides an additional 90 working days for the investigation. Brussels has received the notification ofagreement between the two companies last November 30th.
From the beginning of the investigation, the lens of the EU Antitrust has focused squarely on multiple routes on which the two carriers already operate in “monopoly or duopoly situations”, especially the Lufthansa hubs, from Linate and Fiumicino to Frankfurt and Munich, passing through Vienna, Brussels and Zurich.
Lufthansa aims to acquire 41% of Ita through a capital increase of 325 million euros, with the option to take over all the remaining shares in the hands of the Treasury at a later time and thus rise to 100% of the new company. As part of the agreement, the Mef has committed to a capital increase of 250 million euros, this is the third and final tranche of the overall 1.35 billion euro financing already authorized by the EU.