Wednesday,
November 29, 2006
Alitalia's
"
The
ANNOTICO Report
Consolidation
with Domestic Italian Carriers, or a Deal with an
Asian or Gulf-based airline are preferred.
Several
government ministers and union leaders oppose an accord with the Franco-Dutch
airline, which they suspect of wanting to dominate Alitalia.
AlItalia has a record of political interference, poor
management and turbulent labour relations. Unions
plan to stage their next strike on December 15.
The
Financial Times
They were
speaking as Giancarlo Cimoli, Alitalia's
chief executive, said the airline's performance was improving but needed to
form part of a bigger international group to become more efficient.
Romano Prodi, Italy's centre-left prime minister, has set a
deadline of January 31 for reorganising Alitalia, which made a pre-tax loss of 275.4m ($362m) in
the first nine months of this year.
"The
strategic outlook for Alitalia can only be that of
integration in a big international group that permits the achievement of
significant structural synergies," Mr Cimoli told a parliamentary hearing. He blamed Alitalia's losses partly on soaring fuel costs, which he
said would rise to almost 1.1bn this year from 580m in 2004 and 480m in 2003.
Alitalia is in exploratory talks
with Air France-KLM over expanding their alliance. But several government
ministers and union leaders oppose an accord with the Franco-Dutch airline,
which they suspect of wanting to dominate Alitalia.
Some ministers favour a deal
between Alitalia and an Asian or Gulf-based airline,
and some want consolidation of
Union sources
said the government hoped to reduce its stake in Alitalia
to 25-30 per cent from 49.9 per cent, by selling about half its shareholding to
an investor that would try to guarantee the airline's Italian identity.
Meanwhile, a
foreign airline would form a partnership with Alitalia,
although it was unclear whether it would control the remaining 50.1 per cent.
Alitalia's market capitalisation is about 1.2bn but at the end of October net
debt was 972m. Neither a prominent Italian businessman nor a foreign airline
has so far expressed eagerness to invest in Alitalia.
With no
industrial investors in sight, the government may ask commercial banks to
invest in Alitalia on a temporary basis.
Banca Intesa,
one of
The airline has a
record of political interference, poor management and turbulent labour relations. Unions plan to stage their next strike on
December 15.
The
ANNOTICO Reports
Can
be Viewed, and are Archived at:
Italia
Italia Mia: http://www.ItaliaMia.com
Annotico
Email: annotico@earthlink.net