Lufthansa CEO says final talks with ITA Airways focused on price

Lufthansa's final negotiations for the takeover of ITA Airways are focused on price given ongoing losses, Lufthansa CEO Carsten Spohr told journalists on Wednesday ahead of a meeting later this week with the Italian government to push forward talks. State-owned ITA, which took to the air in 2021 as the successor to loss-making Alitalia, posted on Tuesday a 2022 loss of around E486m due to lingering effects of the pandemic and rising fuel costs, despite strong revenues of E1.58b. Late in January, the Italian Treasury said it had signed a letter of intent with Lufthansa over the sale of a minority stake. Negotiations are ongoing, but no details of the offer were disclosed. Sources have said the German carrier is negotiating with Rome over the purchase of a 40% stake in the airline valued at around E200m, with the idea of buying the rest at a later stage.<br/>