Largest private shareholder halves stake in Lufthansa

KB Holding GmbH, the investment vehicle for the Thiele family, said it sold over a half of its shares in Lufthansa, thus decreasing its stake in the carrier from 10% to 4.5%. In a statement to Reuters, the bookrunner for the transaction said KB Holding had sold 33 million of its 60 million shares at a price of EUR9.80 euro (USD12.0) per share, a discount of around 10% compared to the current trading price. The sale netted EUR323.4 million (USD395.4 million) for the holding. The sale follows the death of the family’s patriarch, Heinz Hermann Thiele, who died at the age of 79 in February 2021. Thiele invested in Lufthansa during the COVID-19 pandemic, buying stakes during a dramatic collapse in share prices in the early days of the crisis. He quickly became the airline’s single largest shareholder with an almost 15% share at one time. At first, he vocally opposed a state bailout accompanied by the German government taking a stake in Lufthansa but ultimately backed the plan. Thiele then gradually reduced his stake. As of May 17, just before the transaction, KB Holding held 10.04%. It remained the carrier’s largest private shareholder, surpassed only by the state-owned COVID-related WSF fund with 20.05%. Despite the sale of half of its shares, KB Holding will likely remain Lufthansa’s largest private shareholder.