Berlin to sell part of its stake in Lufthansa group

The German authorities said Monday it volition merchantability portion of the 20 percent involvement it took past twelvemonth successful Lufthansa to prop up the hose radical during the coronavirus pandemic.

The Economic Stabilisation Fund (WSF) that holds the shares successful Germany's flagship bearer "is selling a constricted portion of its stake", it said successful a statement.

Berlin volition trim its ownership by a maximum of 5 percent "over respective weeks", the WSF said.

The Lufthansa group, which besides includes Austrian, Swiss and Brussels Airlines, was saved from bankruptcy past June by a German authorities bailout.

The government took a 20-percent stake successful the radical arsenic portion of a nine-billion-euro ($10 billion) authorities assistance package.

But the assistance was seen arsenic a impermanent hole and Berlin volition present statesman to merchantability its shares owed to the caller "positive of the company" and "the archetypal occurrence of the forward-looking measures", the WSF said.

Lufthansa halved its losses successful the second quarter of 2021 compared to a twelvemonth ago, arsenic travel restrictions eased implicit the coronavirus pandemic and passengers returned.

Increased bookings saw the radical grounds a affirmative currency travel for the archetypal clip since the commencement of the wellness situation and it is expecting a instrumentality to nett aboriginal this year.

The institution is besides successful the throes of a achy restructuring to slash costs that volition see thousands of occupation cuts, with 30,000 already axed since the commencement of the pandemic.

As portion of the betterment plan, the hose volition trim its existent fleet of 800 craft to 650 by 2023.

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© 2021 AFP