Lufthansa chief indicates interest in future part-sale of MRO arm

Lufthansa Group CE Carsten Spohr is not ruling out a possible future part-sale of the airline’s MRO arm, but stresses that the group intends to remain the majority shareholder as the technical division is “close to our heart”. Speaking during a Q1 results briefing on 3 June, Spohr confirmed that an IPO for shares in Lufthansa Technik had been discussed as an option prior to the coronavirus crisis. Noting existing co-operation arrangements with manufacturers and other airlines, Spohr says an alternative option could be to merge parts of LHT with another party. LHT has separate, jointly owned engine overhaul shops with GE Aviation, MTU and Rolls-Royce. Additionally, the German MRO provider has established close partnerships with multiple OEMs for certain products and services. A shareholding in Air China’s maintenance centre Ameco was among Lufthansa’s early MRO investments, prior LHT’s establishment in 1995. Spohr says: “Can I imagine to bring part of [LHT] to the stock exchange or merge some of it with a partner? Yes.” But he rules out the possibility of divesting LHT’s entire shareholding. ”Lufthansa Technik is part of our core… It’s close to our heart. We will not give that up easily at all.” He says the coronavirus crisis has put any ownership-change evaluations on hold as “the market at this point of time is the wrong one to do any divestment”.<br/>