Alitalia begins handling, MRO unit tenders

Now in the process of being wound down after being succeeded by ITA Airways (AZ, Rome Fiumicino) in October, Alitalia (AZ, Rome Fiumicino) has embarked on selling off its groundhandling and maintenance units.

The former flag carrier said in a statement on December 20 that groups interested in entering the data room for either of the assets could apply to do so between December 21 and 2359L (2259Z) February 14, 2022. The deadline for binding offers is 1400L (1300Z) on February 28.

The process to divest another business which the European Commission prevented ITA from taking over, the MilleMiglia loyalty programme, has already begun. Its deadline for data room admission requests was December 10. Alitalia’s aviation branch was sold to state-owned ITA for the symbolic price of EUR1 euro (USD1.13), together with debts and loans but not EUR900 million (USD1 billion) in illegal state aid granted in 2017.

In assessing the binding offers for the handling and MRO assets, Alitalia’s three extraordinary commissioners, Gabriele Fava, Giuseppe Leogrande, and Daniele Umberto Santosuosso, have not set a base price and will take into account both the price offered (60 points) and “the future prospects indicated by potential buyers” outlined in an attached business plan (40 points), the company added.

The two assets both currently provide services to ITA Airways, which has never hidden any interest in purchasing them. Sources told the newspaper Corriere della Sera that the groundhandling division has about 40 customers in total, the maintenance division about 80.

The tenders invite applications from “individuals or corporates of any nationality” as well as consortiums, which would allow ITA to participate together with other parties, as was requested by the European Commission – for maintenance as a minority shareholder, for handling as a majority shareholder. Sources told Corriere that it was intending to apply for the MRO business together with Naples Capodichino-based Atitech.