Shipping group MSC has told Italian authorities that it is no longer interested in investing in ITA Airways as part of a planned privatisation, MSC said in a statement on Monday. MSC had partnered with German airline Lufthansa earlier this year to bid for a stake in ITA, the successor to Alitalia, in a process that failed to result in a deal. MSC, led by Gianluigi Aponte, had initially seen an investment as a way of expanding beyond its cruise and container shipping business. In a short statement, MSC said it did not now see the right conditions for a deal in the current process. The privatisation is proving a headache for the Italian Treasury. It reopened the process at the end of last month after an exclusivity period for talks with US private equity fund Certares, Air France KLM and Delta failed to produce a deal. A Lufthansa spokesman said last week that it was still interested in buying into ITA despite reports that MSC had pulled out.<br/>