"The rejection of a merger is very rare" , was the quote of the chief of EU Antitrust Authority last month ! Now, the European Commission is gearing to authorize Lufthansa's acquisition of a 41% stake in ITA Airways after both the German airline and the Italian one provided repeated sets of assurances on the deal, EC sources said Thursday.
According to sources within the European Union, who remained anonymous but were quoted by Ansa and Corriere della Sera, among others, the European Commission's competition department will approve the agreement for the acquisition of the Italian airline ITA Airways by Lufthansa, Germany's largest airline and among the largest in the world. The deal would be worth €325 million.
This is an important change of approach, given that last March the Commission had raised a number of objections and concerns against the agreement and seemed to be against it.
After months of confrontations and thousands of documents produced, including in the last few hours, the EU Antitrust Authority is preparing to communicate to the Italian Ministry of Economy and Lufthansa the green light for the German investment in Ita Airways, the Italian company that took over from Alitalia in October 2021.
A few days ago, Lufthansa proposed to amend certain conditions in order to meet the Commission's demands. For now, the European authorities have communicated to their Italian counterparts only a "preliminary" orientation, writes Corriere della Sera: the eventual final approval should arrive by next July 4, given that the document has yet to be physically written and approved.
European sources close to the dossier told ANSA that the green light, barring unexpected last-minute developments, should be informally given in the next few days.
The Commission had earlier been expected to announce its verdict between the end of June and the beginning of July, a few days before a July 4 deadline.
Unions representing Lufthansa and ITA Airways employees recently sent a joint letter to European Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager calling for the operation to be given the green light.
The Italian Treasury owns ITA, the company that replaced the loss-making former flag-carrier Alitalia in 2021.
The agreement between the Italian government and Lufthansa was announced at the end of May last year. It envisages that Lufthansa will buy 41 percent of ITA Airways (it is currently 100 percent controlled by the Ministry of Economy) through a capital increase of 325 million euros.
The agreement also provides for further capital increases in the following years with two steps, first to 90 and then to 100 percent by 2033 with a total investment of 829 million euros.
Progress in overcoming Vestager's competition misgivings were reported last week and the main outstanding issue were said to regard long-haul flights from Rome's Fiumicino airport to the United States.
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