Italy's government has given the go-ahead for the failing national flag-carrier Alitalia to be sold to a group of investors for around €1 billion.
The minister for economic development, Claudio Scajola, authorised the special administrator in charge of Alitalia, Augusto Fantozzi, 'to proceed with selling the assets at a price no less than €1.052 billion,' a government statement said.
The assets will be sold to the Italian Air Company (CAI), an investor group set up in an emergency move in August to relaunch the national airline, which was on the verge of bankruptcy.
Today's approval cleared the final stage in a drawn-out rescue process for Alitalia after EU authorities last week cleared the takeover while ruling that CAI would not have to repay a state loan judged to be illegal.
The airline, 49.9% owned by the Italian state, still seeks a foreign partner to take a minority stake in the relaunched firm.
Italian news agencies earlier reported that Alitalia had delayed a decision on a foreign partner until the end of the year. The decision - likely between the Anglo-Dutch giant Air France-KLM or Germany's Lufthansa - had been expected in the coming days.
The revamped Alitalia is due to take off on December 1. CAI is to retain 12,500 Alitalia workers while cutting some 3,250 jobs.
