With regard to the capital increase of Air France-Klm in Alitalia, an intermediate solution emerges: the possibility of partially adhering to the increase. This could be a compromise solution between the hypothesized options of participation in the operation based on the stake currently held (25%, for a cost of 75 million) or non-subscription.
Alitalia, the Italian Government and the Post Office (which would also pay 75 million into the company) are putting pressure on the French-Dutch group to avoid the damage to its image that would result from a negative decision by Air France-KLM, interpreted as a lack confidence in the real possibilities of restoring and relaunching the company.
This choice would allow the French-Dutch group to underline the many doubts without excessively diluting its shareholding (which in the event of non-subscription would drop to around 11%) and maintaining a strong position within the new shareholder structure. Furthermore, it would limit the possible negative consequences on the internal front, starting from the trade union one, in a moment of restructuring of the company (which foresees 2.800 departures which add up to the over 5 thousand of the last two years).
If the group then decides to remain above 20% in any case, it would retain the veto right envisaged by the statute in relation to strategic decisions that must be approved with at least 80% of the capital.
The aforementioned issues will be at the center of the Franco-Italian meetings scheduled for the next few days in Paris. Today the Minister of Economic Development, Flavio Zanonato, will meet his colleague Arnaud Montebourg on the sidelines of a conference, in Bercy, on European industrial competitiveness. Montebourg had declared that «Air France has its problems and it is never a solution to multiply the difficulties by two».
On Friday, however, Prime Minister Enrico Letta will meet his French colleague Jean-Marc Ayrault. And it is above all on that occasion that the Italian government will try to convince Paris, because Air France - with which Alitalia has long had strong commercial ties - is the industrial partner with which the former national airline can build a medium-long term strategy .
