The chaos over Alitalia shows no sign of abating despite the government flaunting serenity. The deadline expired on April 30th for the submission of binding offers from potential partners interested in rescuing the commissioned company, the extension - now mandatory - requested by the State Railways should become official in the next few hours. In the meantime, the Minister for Economic Development, Luigi Di Maio, is changing the tables, arguing that only one last effort is needed to save Alitalia: "15%", not 40%, as assumed by everyone until Thursday.
A piece of news which, if confirmed, would represent a breath of fresh air for a company which, precisely because of the absence of interested buyers, was considered ever closer to liquidation.
THE ALITALIA CHAOS IN BRIEF
But let's take a step back. On 2 May 2017, Alitalia was placed under extraordinary administration, a last - desperate - attempt to avoid the bankruptcy of a company that still burns one million euros a day.
The rescue plan subsequently developed to avoid the collapse provides, in addition to the creation of a bad company in which to merge the debts, too the entry of new shareholders capable of injecting the necessary liquidity to restart the company.
The binding offers of the new shareholders, as mentioned, should have arrived by April 30, but in the absence of a solution, the commissioners are expected to extend the deadline for the presentation, probably to the end of the month.
According to previous reports, the offers presented covered only 60% of the needs. In detail, the entry of the Ministry of Economy with a 15% stake, Delta Air Lines, again with 15%, and Ferrovie dello Stato with a 30% stake was expected. Not enough.
For the remaining 40% many hypotheses have been made in recent months, from the Toto Group to Cassa Depositi e Presti, passing through Lufthansa, which however withdrew due to the presence of the Italian State in the capital of the former national airline.
ATLANTIA BETWEEN CONFIRMATIONS AND DENTALIES
The name of Atlantia, the company that controls Autostrade per l'Italia and Aeroporti di Roma, has also appeared among the eligible candidates. “There are many important talks going on and Atlantia is among them”, confirmed today, May 3, the Minister of Infrastructure and Transport, Danilo Toninelli. It is a pity that only 24 hours earlier the CEO of the company, Giovanni Castellucci, had instead said the opposite: "Given that AdR has such a high global appeal that the future is not so determined by the Alitalia affair and given that we closely follow the Alitalia affair and we hope it will find a definitive arrangement, I reiterate what I said a few weeks ago at the meeting: we have so many open fronts that we cannot afford to commit ourselves on such a complex front as Alitalia is“, declared the manager on the occasion of the presentation of the exhibition “Le Ali di Leonardo. The genius and the flight”. Then responding to those who asked him about the group's possible entry into the rescue of Alitalia. “There is no news, nothing has changed,” Castellucci said. Which, however when asked if it was a definitive no, he replied: "I can't say more".
ALITALIA, DI MAIO: "ONLY 15% MISSING"
The words spoken during the TV broadcast came to blow up the accounts Half past eight by the Minister of Economic Development, Luigi Di Maio: "There are Fs, Delta and there will be the Mef, there are three subjects, one is missing, but not 40%, but 15%”. Words that left everyone involved stunned.
"There are three subjects, one is missing", reiterated the deputy prime minister. From his statements, it can therefore be deduced that one or two of the interested shareholders have decided to increase their share (and quite a bit). And the remaining 15 percent? The Atlantia option has not yet been 100% set aside. According to what writes the Corriere della Sera, the company led by Castellucci could actually enter the game, but only if the government promises to burying the hatchet after the tensions caused by the collapse of the Morandi Bridge which led the Executive to formulate heavy accusations against Atlantia and to repeatedly threaten the revocation of the motorway concessions.
