Air Transport

Italian investors extend Alitalia offer until 31 October

By Graham Dunn

Italian investor consortium Compagnia Aerea Italiana (CAI) has extended the deadline on its conditional offer to relaunch Alitalia until the end of the month.

CAI, which re-submitted its offer late last month after securing union framework support for its relaunch plans, had originally given a deadline of 15 October. It has now extended this until the end of the month.

A CAI spokesman explains: "It gives time for CAI to complete due diligence work."

The CAI consortium, which is lead by chairman of Piaggio Group chairman Roberto Colaninno, is the only offer Alitalia administrator Augusto Fantozzi has received for the large part of its air transport business. CAI will itself hold a shareholder meeting on 28 October, at which among other things, it is set to transform the status of the group into a SPA company, marking the last step in readying CAI to take on the assets of the company.

The spokesman could not say when the grouping might submit a binding offer for Alitalia, as due diligence and analysis of the CAI offer by Alitalia's financial advisors continue. It has been hoping to begin operations with the relaunched Alitalia by the start of November.