More Alitalia Assets Could Get Bidders
By Andy Nativi 
Italian State Commissar Agusto Fantozzi, who runs what remains of the old Alitalia, hopes to receive significant expressions of interest on April 30 for the proposed sale of three more key assets that remain under his control with the break-up of Alitalia.
These include AMS, Alitalia Maintenance Systems, a company involved in APU and engines MRO operations. The commissar is offering for sale a 60% stake of the company capital, but the minority shareholder, Lufthansa Technik, has a special right to buy, if it puts out an offer that is at least equal to that of other potential bidders.
The commissar is also inviting offers for Atitech, a 100%-owned company involved in heavy maintenance and upgrade services on medium- and long-range aircraft, with its activities centered in Naples-Capodichino.
Atitech is currently working thanks to temporary contracts that should expire by the end of the month and could eventually be extended. The fate of this company is politically sensitive because it employs hundreds of aerospace mechanics in southern Italy. Finmeccanica has been solicited to take a role, but Pier Francesco Guarguaglini has repeatedly stated that its company could eventually take only a minority stake in the company, provided that some other subject steps in to buy the majority of the capital and to run Atitech.
One of the possibilities is that a group of private local investors steps in, mirroring the scheme that has brought to the establishment of CAI, the company which acquired the flying business of Alitalia and Air One.
Finally, the commissar is also expecting, by April 28, offers for the 40% stake that it owns on Aicos, the services company providing call center and IT services for Alitalia. The majority stake is held by Almaviva Contact. The fate of Aicos also is politically delicate because it operates in Sicily. If offers are received in this first phase, the commissar will eventually start a due diligence phase with the bidders, leading them to the presentation of binding final offers.
Photo: Airbus
