Lufthansa in early talks on possible tie-up for caterer LSG: sources

Lufthansa is in early talks about a possible tie-up between its LSG Group catering unit with partners such as Austria’s Do&Co, Singapore’s SATS and Switzerland’s Gategroup, people close to the matter said. Lufthansa is exploring its options with the help of Morgan Stanley, but has not launched a formal sales process, sources said. CE Carsten Spohr said last month that the German airline was considering divesting LSG. “We have not defined whether this (sale) would go ahead, or whether we would hold on to LSG in full,” he told the Boersen-Zeitung newspaper, adding the company would not support a sale to private equity. A Lufthansa spokesman said the airline had no additional comment. SATS, Do&Co, Gategroup owner HNA and Morgan Stanley declined to comment. A deal could value LSG at roughly E1b, people close to the matter said, but noted that antitrust issues might prevent some players from being able to buy all of LSG’s assets, meaning a partial sale is also possible. Vienna-listed Do&Co, which has a market capitalization of E830m, is too small to do a deal on its own, the sources said. Do&Co has therefore reached out to investors who could potentially help it finance a deal, they said.<br/>