Germany’s Lufthansa gets first say on Air Berlin asset sale-union

Industry:    2017-08-19

A first round of formal talks for the sale of insolvent German airline Air Berlin’s assets will be held with its bigger local rival Lufthansa on Friday, ahead of other prospective bidders, a senior labour union official said.

“Only Lufthansa will initially be part of the talks … As far as I know, the other bidders will be invited for talks afterward and then an overall package will be put together,” said Lufthansa’s deputy chair Christine Behle, who represents labour union Verdi on the company’s supervisory board.

She also told Reuters negotiations would begin on Friday and she expected them to continue through the weekend.

Air Berlin, Germany’s second-largest airline, filed for bankruptcy protection on Tuesday after shareholder Etihad Airways withdrew funding following years of losses.

With many Germans travelling on their summer holidays and a September general election looming, Berlin has granted a bridging loan of 150 million euros ($176 million) to keep Air Berlin’s planes in the air for up to three months and secure 7,200 jobs in Germany while buyers for its assets are found.

That means that the race is on to carve up the airline and obtain anti-trust approval for any deals before Air Berlin runs out of cash.

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