Italy’s government aims to sell state-owned ITA Airways, the successor to Alitalia, by the end of June after setting a deadline for binding offers of May 23, Economy Minister Daniele Franco said on Tuesday. Three prospective bidders for ITA Airways have had access to its finance data room, Franco said addressing parliament over the issue. They are shipping group MSC alongside Germany’s Lufthansa, the US Certares fund in cooperation with Delta and Air France, and investor Indigo Partners, Franco added. Under a government decree, Rome plans to privatise ITA through a direct sale while retaining a minority, non-controlling stake in a first stage. MSC in January requested an exclusivity period of 90 days to iron out details of an acquisition, but Rome opted for a market-based procedure aimed at keeping the door open to other potential suitors. “The outcome of the negotiations is not a foregone conclusion. We will examine the three offers in a transparent way, there is no decision on our part at present,” Franco said adding a key factor is that the buyer is at least 51% owned by a European player. Lufthansa is interested in taking a minority stake in ITA, leaving the majority to MSC, the airline said in remarks during its shareholders meeting on Tuesday. It added, however, that the review of ITA’s financial data would be important to confirm this preliminary intention. If the deal does go through, Lufthansa aims to build a close commercial cooperation with ITA and expects synergies to make the investment profitable in the long term, the carrier said.<br/>
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China Eastern Airlines Corp plans to raise up to 15b yuan ($2.23b) in a share sale to expand its fleet and to replenish working capital, the company said in a filing to the Shanghai stock exchange on Tuesday. The Chinese airline will use 10.5b yuan of the proceeds from the share sale to fund the purchase of 38 airplanes which are expected to be delivered between 2022 and 2024, it said in the filing. The 38 airplanes include four C919, 24 ARJ21-700, six Airbus A350-900 and four Boeing 787-9, with a total list price of about $4.38b. The remaining 4.5b yuan from the share sale would be used to boost the airline's working capital, according to the filing. China Eastern Air Holding Company Limited, controlling shareholder of the company, would invest at least 5.0b yuan in the share sale, according to the plan.<br/>
State-controlled airline Garuda Indonesia has asked a Jakarta court to extend for the third time its deadline to complete its debt-restructuring process, its CEO said, as the verification of claims remains unfinished. Garuda proposed a 30-day extension to verify claims and finalise negotiations with creditors, CEO Irfan Setiaputra said during a creditors meeting at the Central Jakarta Commercial Court on Tuesday. The flag-carrier is seeking to slash liabilities of $9.8b down to $3.7b under the debt restructuring. Creditors have submitted $13.8b worth of claims against the struggling airline. “We are certain that this will be the last extension that we propose to the court,” he said. Creditors present at Tuesday’s meeting also agreed with the proposed extension, Asri, one of the proceeding’s curators told reporters. The proposal, including the length of the extension, is pending judges’ approval. In its latest restructuring plan, Garuda’s lessors must choose from three options - end their lease contract; amend the terms for planes that are in Garuda’s future business plan; or sign an alternative lease agreement for planes that are not included in the business plan. The airline has said that it seeks to scale down its fleet to 66 from 142 planes before the pandemic. The lessors’ outstanding debts will be converted to new bonds and new equity in the airline, according to the plan. Both Garuda and French-based aircraft manufacturer Airbus have agreed on the nominal amount of the latter’s claims that will be included in the debt restructuring at around 7.8t rupiah ($535.90m), Asri said. Airbus has also agreed to amend its agreement with Garuda, including cancelling some of Garuda’s orders and to “relax” the schedule of its planes’ delivery starting from 2026, Irfan said.<br/>