Yet another bridging loan to help Alitalia survive. On December 2, the Council of Ministers approved a decree law which unblocks a loan of 400 million euros previously allocated by the tax law decree and - until a few days ago - linked to the offer that went up in smoke from the FS-Atlantia consortium- Delta. The provision has already been published in the Official Gazette and sent to the Chamber for incorporation into the tax decree.
At the same time, the government decided to announce a new procedure for the sale of Alitalia's corporate complexes, extending the deadline for completing the procedure from 30 March to 31 May 2020.
“The loan – explains the Executive in a note – is intended for affinance the undeferrable management needs of Alitalia and the execution, by the commissioner body, of the plan of initiatives and interventions functional to the efficiency of the structure as well as the timely definition of the transfer of the company complexes, so that the discontinuity, including economic, of the management by the subject is ensured transferee.
“We all agree – said the foreign minister, Luigi Di Maio leaving the meeting - that a rule should be made that allows the commissioner structure to use the bridging loan. There is no political decision to make”.
The new loan is therefore considered necessary to keep Alitalia standing after the failure of the recent attempts to sell it to the consortium led by Ferrovie dello Stato and made up of Delta and Atlantia. The latter was pointed out by the Minister of Economic Development, Stefano Patuanelli, as one guilty of the failed sale: “there was no market response due to the fault of Atlantia which fictitiously participated in a procedure without actually wanting to invest in the company. This wasted a lot of time and to date there is no market solution”, said the Mise number one at 24 Mattino on Radio 24.
The loan approved on December 2 by the cdm follows the 900 million one launched in 2017 on which it is in progress an investigation by the European Union. "The Commission's investigation into whether Italy's €900m bridging loan to Alitalia constitutes state aid and whether it complies with EU state aid rules is ongoing and we cannot affect its timing or results. We are in regular contact with the Italian authorities in the context of our ongoing investigations,” the Brussels spokesman said.
The Commission “also takes note of the announcement by the Italian authorities to grant another loan to Alitalia. We are in close contact with the Italian authorities and cannot prejudge the outcome of such contacts or the timing of possible next steps." At the moment, Italy's request for a further loan of 400 million has not been notified to Brussels.
After two years and seven months of extraordinary administration and sales attempts, between endless deadlines and eight extensions in just one year, we are back to square one. It should be emphasized that as of October 31, only 315 million euros remained in Alitalia's coffers e the company continues to lose 1 million euros a day.
