On July 05th, MSC and Lufthansa submitted a new proposal to buy ITA Airways, which was presented to the Ministry of Economy of Italy, according to sources at the Corriere della Sera.
According to the sources, the two companies still intend to acquire 80% of the capital, but for an amount of up to 800 million euros, compared to the indication of 1 billion euros in the proposal presented earlier. This represents a 20% cut.
Lufthansa and MSC lowered their proposal just hours before the deadline for submitting the bid for the state-owned airline. The two companies assess, according to the sources, that the aviation market is in a complicated situation, facing appreciated dollar and oil, with higher costs.
Possibly the biggest opponent of the German airline will be the combination of Air--KLM and Delta, which was preparing an offer in partnership with the North American investor Certares. The proposals will be evaluated in the coming days by the Ministry of Economy of Italy, and it will be up to Prime Minister Draghi to make the final decision.
According to the Italian media, it is speculated that the ITA Airways has an estimated market value of between 1 billion and 2 billion euros, with the forecast to complete the sale at the end of June.
ITA Airways meanwhile expands its operations, receiving new and expensive Airbus A350-900 in its fleet, while debuting flights to São Paulo and Buenos Aires (Argentina), for example.
