Merger ?

[Kip Powick]

ROME–Air France-KLM said it would make an offer for Italian carrier Alitalia, a long-awaited move that faces a serious challenge only from tiny Italian airline Air One.

The winning bidder for Alitalia, which is losing $1.5 million (Canadian) a day, will take on an airline beset with strike-prone unions, inefficiency and entrenched regional interests who back maintaining twin hubs in Rome and Milan.

Germany's Lufthansa walked away from the sale of the Italian state's 49.9 per cent holding at the last minute, saying an offer could have put its investment-grade debt rating at risk.

"Air France-KLM are the most suited investor to take over Alitalia, more so than Lufthansa because they've gone through the process of merging two totally different airlines," said Diogenis Papiomytis, aviation consultant with Frost & Sullivan. "And they are the ones who will benefit the most from Alitalia."

A little-known group led by Italian lawyer Antonio Baldassarre also presented an offer, ANSA news agency reported, even though Alitalia had already excluded the group from the running for lack of financial muscle to pull off a deal.

That leaves Italy's fragile centre-left government with two vastly different options in Air One and Air France-KLM.

An Air One takeover would keep Alitalia in Italian hands, but there has been doubt over whether the smaller airline has the wherewithal to turn around an airline with a long list of woes.

The Air France-KLM choice would make Alitalia part of the world's biggest airline by sales, but at a sharp discount to its share price and with potential for job cuts.

Air One said its offer proposed investing $6 billion in Alitalia, mainly to renew its aging fleet. Under its plan, the airline would be able to maintain its dual-hub strategy and aimed for a break-even result by 2009 and a profit the next year.

Air One is the only name left from an earlier failed attempt to auction Alitalia. It is backed by top banks Intesa Sanpaolo, Morgan Stanley, Nomura and Goldman Sachs.