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ROME : The bank overseeing the relaunch of Italy's ailing national airline Alitalia denied a report Friday that it had offered a 10-20 percent stake to Air France-KLM, the ANSA news agency said.
"There is absolutely no basis" to the report in the French daily La Tribune, the agency quoted a spokesman for the Intesa Sanpaolo bank as saying.
La Tribune had said Intesa Sanpaolo offered the stake in secret and "held out the possibility that Air France-KLM could become the majority shareholder in five years' time, in 2013," according to an unsourced report.
An Air France-KLM spokeswoman said that beyond a cooperation accord with Alitalia which allows a minority stake, "everything else is only speculation."
Air France-KLM holds a two percent stake in the Italian airline and said in August that it was ready to take a minority stake in the new Alitalia which will emerge from the restructuring plan.
Talks between the two companies on a full takeover collapsed in April when Alitalia's future became an issue in elections won by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. He fought fiercely against a foreign takeover, promising an "Italian solution".
Lufthansa and British Airways are also reported to have shown an interest in taking a stake in the carrier when it is relaunched.
Alitalia employs 11,100 people in its air transport operations and a further 8,300 in maintenance and services.
The company, in which the Italian state has a 49.9 percent stake, has been surviving on a loan of 300 million euros made in April from public funds after the collapse of talks with Air France-KLM.
In Italy, the government official appointed to oversee the rescue, Augusto Fantozzi, said on Friday that a decision on allowing a foreign partner to take a stake would be made by the end of the month.
He added that a Rome court had accepted the airline's request to be declared bankrupt and placed under special administration. The request was filed last week under new provisions made to clear the way for it be relaunched as a new company after selling off its unprofitable operations.
The civil aviation authority ENAC meanwhile granted a six-month provisional licence to Alitalia to continue operating flights pending its relaunch, the body's president Vito Riggio announced on Friday after meeting Fantozzi.
"It is important that the service not be interrupted," Fantozzi said.
- AFP /ls
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