After the wedding that almost reached the altar between Alitalia and Ethiad, the partner banks get in the way of the Post Office's entry into the agreement. The 39 million that Poste has promised to invest in aircraft, slots and personnel have not found a good reception in Unicredit and Intesa Sanpaolo. In the rounds of talks that took place over the weekend between advisors, banks, post offices and government officials, one of the main bankers would have said he was ready to leave the negotiations. For his part, Caio, CEO of Poste, does not mind not being considered an equal partner of the two banks, and remains firm in making his 19,48% weigh on the negotiating table.
Today in Rome there will be a new clarifying meeting between banks, post offices, advisors, government officials and Del Torchio. The objective of the summit will be to defuse the possible explosion of the table in the most important week for the Alitalia-Ethiad marriage, which should lead to the signing of the contract on Friday 25th. The version of the agreement as interpreted by Poste sees Haldco with 46% of New Alitalia, while the company headed by Caio at 5%. Such a division would see more than half of the new company in European hands, but the EU itself stipulates that 51% of the company must be private and such an agreement would not satisfy this condition.
In the conference call held yesterday, Abu Dabhi also expressed his doubts about the solution put forward by Poste. In this case, New Alitalia's partners would be three and no longer two as envisaged in the initial negotiations in which Ethiad had intended the marriage, and this would raise the need for a relative change in governance. A further summit was scheduled between Wednesday and Thursday for the approval of the contract to be signed the following Friday. But everything will depend on today's meeting, in which the foundations for the eventual Alitalia-Ethiad honeymoon will in all probability be established.
