Lufthansa is close to completing a deal to acquire ITA Airways after lengthy negotiations, as differences with the Italian government over the price to be paid for the purchase of the loss-making carrier have reportedly been resolved.
The Italian government announced late on Monday that it had submitted a series of remedies to the European Commission, with Rome now waiting for final approval from the Commission before proceeding to finalise the deal. The European Commission had imposed a number of conditions on the sale of ITA last June, including a requirement to cede take-off and landing rights to competitors.
The Italian Ministry of Finance, which controls ITA, announced that the financial terms of the proposed agreement remain unchanged.
The deal was recently put on hold when the German airline requested a lower price than the €325m originally agreed for the 41% stake in ITA, claiming that the value of the stake had fallen. Italy refused, leading to the deal, albeit in its final stretch, being in limbo. But the main points of contention between the two sides appeared to be resolved on Monday night, Bloomberg reported.
The German airline had pointed to the expected drop in the value of the ITA in the last quarter of 2024 as the reason for the discount request.
A successful sale of ITA would allow the Italian prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, to be relieved of the burden of responsibility for an airline whose predecessor, Alitalia, has been sucking up state resources for decades.
Lufthansa confirmed that the remedy package has been submitted to European authorities and that it is “confident that the European Commission will approve it in the coming weeks,” according to a statement from the German carrier.
The European Commission gave the go-ahead for the acquisition of ITA in July this year, but demanded certain concessions to maintain competition.
The final deadline for accepting the conditions was 4 November.
