(new: possible bid price, background)

FRANKFURT/ROM (dpa-AFX) - Lufthansa is getting serious about its planned takeover of Italian carrier Ita Airways. It has submitted a bid for the Alitalia successor to the Ministry of Economy and Finance in Rome, the MDax group announced Wednesday. Lufthansa is initially seeking a minority stake, but wants to secure options for acquiring the remaining shares when it joins the company.

As sole owner, the Italian government must now decide whether to enter into exclusive sales negotiations, which could take several weeks. Lufthansa expects negotiations on the structure of the stake as well as on its operational integration into the Group.

It initially remained unclear whether another offer had been received for the loss-making airline, which most recently operated 66 aircraft. A takeover would be subject to approval by the EU Commission under competition law.

Lufthansa did not name any sums for its offer. Various media outlets had reported that the initial offer was for a 40 percent stake, for which between 200 million and 350 million euros could be due. According to industry circles, Lufthansa, together with the major shipping company MSC, had already offered around 850 million for 80 percent of Ita last year. The price would therefore have fallen.

Ita was launched in October 2021 as the unofficial and significantly downsized successor to Alitalia, which had finally had to give up in the Corona crisis. The company has flown exclusively at a loss since its launch and has had to be further supported by the state, which the EU has approved. With about 4,000 employees, it has a market share of about 20 percent in its home country.

Lufthansa has been trying for decades to gain a foothold in the important market beyond the Alps, which also boasts strong U.S. business. In 2009, the newly founded Lufthansa Italia competed against the just privatized Alitalia, but was quickly closed down after high losses. Currently, the Group is only attracting transfer passengers from rich northern Italy to the Munich hub with its regional subsidiary Air Dolomiti. Not without success: Italy is Lufthansa's second most important foreign market after the U.S., as Group CEO Carsten Spohr always emphasizes.

As recently as last year, Lufthansa had sought a majority takeover of Ita in a partnership with the Swiss-Italian shipping company MSC. However, MSC dropped out after the U.S. fund Certares, with the airlines Delta and Air France-KLM in the background, was initially supposed to win the bid. The U.S. capital company Indigo, which has a stake in the low-cost carrier Wizz Air in Europe, had also shown interest in Ita. However, a sale did not materialize, so a new bidding process was launched.

A key issue in the negotiations is reportedly the possible influence of government agencies on business policy. In a decree, the right-wing government under Giorgia Meloni had assured a new minority owner a free hand in operational decisions. However, experts had advised Lufthansa to secure a majority in order to be able to push through reforms.

Joint purchasing and coordinated flight schedules are seen as starting points for bringing Ita into the black. Lufthansa's share price was already in good shape ahead of the offer, peaking at 9.24 euros, its highest level since August 2021, boosted by strong financial statements from U.S. carrier United Airlines, which significantly exceeded profit expectations and benefited from the recovery in travel. Since the beginning of the year, Lufthansa's share price gain now amounts to almost 19 percent.

Deutsche Lufthansa AG has acquired several European airlines in recent years. Europe's largest aviation group now includes former state-owned companies such as Swiss, Austrian Airlines and the Belgian Sabena successor Brussels Airlines. The latter was taken over by Lufthansa in two stages, initially also with a minority stake. Another possible takeover target is the Portuguese Tap./ceb/DP/stw