Sunday,
December 23, 2007
Air France- KLM to Buy Alitalia ???
The ANNOTICO Report
Air France- KLM, the Franco-Dutch airline seems to be the winner in purchasing AlItalia.
Rival, regional Italian airline Air One, at one time considered the front runner, and favored by many to keep Alitalia, as Italian, and Russian airline Aeroflot, US buyout firm Matlin Patterson Global Advisers, German airline Lufthansa, and a consortium led by Italian lawyer Antonio Baldassarre all showed interest.
Alitalia Prefers Air
Alitalia has chosen Air France-KLM as its preferred bidder, clearing the way for takeover talks to pick up pace.
BBC News
Friday, 21 December 2007
A number of groups have been linked to a
takeover of Alitalia, including Air France-KLM's main rival Air One.
The government is looking to bring in outside
help as Alitalia struggles with 1.2bn euros ($1.7bn;
#869m) of debt and is losing more than 1m euros a day.
The state still owns a 49.9% stake in Alitalia.
Nationalist sentiment
Some analysts were tipping Air One to become
preferred the bidder because it was an Italian company.
With nationalist sentiments running high in
"The reputation of the Alitalia brand, a key asset for the whole group, will be
developed in
Mr Spinetta said the Air
France-KLM was "delighted to have had our plan accepted as the best for
the future of Alitalia".
Alitalia is losing money at a rate of 1m euros a day and is
weighed down by 1.2bn euros of debt.
A decision on the takeover is
expected by the end of January.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7156693.stm
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