SAS shares jump on report of possible Lufthansa investment

SAS advanced as much as 7.2% following a report that Lufthansa is in talks about buying a stake in the tri-national carrier. SAS rose 1.7 kronor to 25.30 kronor, the biggest gain in two months, before closing 5.5% higher at 24.90 kronor in Stockholm, where it is based. That takes the stock into positive territory for the year, with a 2% increase, and gives the company a market value of 8.22b kronor ($1b). Lufthansa has been in negotiations about a possible investment in SAS since the fall, Reuters reported Wednesday, citing people close to the German company it didn’t identify. Alternative options include a partnership or some other kind of cooperation, it said.<br/>SAS returned to full-year profit in 2015, with pretax earnings of 1.17b kronor, aided by cost cuts and a sharper focus on business travel as it seeks to stem a loss of market share to discount carriers on short-haul routes and European and Persian Gulf network operators in the long-haul sector.<br/>