Oh wow is me - the auction for Alitalia has now officially collapsed. AirOne and its bidding group have officially withdrawn so now there are no bidders.
There are some good lessons to be learned here.
1. The world is not Italy
2. Listen up Iberia board... dont make the same mistakes
Seriously though - this should be taken as an opportunity for the Prodi government to go back to the drawing board and re-cast the bidding in a transparent manner.
Oh yes and do remember our favorite bete noir is lurking in the wings with a suit against the EC for their previous do nothing approach to state aid to Alitalia (and others). So lets be clear. If the Prodi administration has to invest any more cash into Alitalia - then there is going to be a nasty fight. Mr O'Leary will force the EC to take a hard line on this subject or risk being taken to court in an embarassing result of having to claim the money back.
Is anyone paying attention in Athens?
Doesn't anyone in Rome remember Swissair and Sabena?
This one is going to run for a while yet
Cheers
Timothy
Showing posts with label Prodi. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Prodi. Show all posts
Thursday, July 19, 2007
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
Alitalia - and then there were 2...
The Government of Sr Prodi can't seem to do much right these days.
Hot on the heels of a major right down of its dilapidated fleet and a resulting bad quarter, AZ lost one of the 3 remaining suitors. Sadly it was the strongest financially - the TPG, Mattelin Patterson consortium bailed yesterday. Reason? Connot comply with the restrictions on the bidding process imposed by the government. This leaves just Aeroflot (yes those guys) and AP Holdings (AirOne) only in the running.
So unless there is a white knight at the last moment (and I believe that the bidding process does not allow that), then the Prodi regime has a terrible dilemma on its hands. I can almost hear Mr O'Leary jumping for joy.
Our advice (which of course at this point is provided free of charge) is to re-open the bidding process and remove many of the stupid constraints on the bidders.
Its the only way to resolve a bad situation. However for the Italian government 3 not very nice choices:
Box A - admit you were wrong and re-open the bidding
Box B - the Russians get it (Garibaldi will be spinning in his grave)
Box C - Monopoly run by AirOne.
Hmmmm I think I would seek asylum in the Vatican
Cheers
ITK
Hot on the heels of a major right down of its dilapidated fleet and a resulting bad quarter, AZ lost one of the 3 remaining suitors. Sadly it was the strongest financially - the TPG, Mattelin Patterson consortium bailed yesterday. Reason? Connot comply with the restrictions on the bidding process imposed by the government. This leaves just Aeroflot (yes those guys) and AP Holdings (AirOne) only in the running.
So unless there is a white knight at the last moment (and I believe that the bidding process does not allow that), then the Prodi regime has a terrible dilemma on its hands. I can almost hear Mr O'Leary jumping for joy.
Our advice (which of course at this point is provided free of charge) is to re-open the bidding process and remove many of the stupid constraints on the bidders.
Its the only way to resolve a bad situation. However for the Italian government 3 not very nice choices:
Box A - admit you were wrong and re-open the bidding
Box B - the Russians get it (Garibaldi will be spinning in his grave)
Box C - Monopoly run by AirOne.
Hmmmm I think I would seek asylum in the Vatican
Cheers
ITK
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