Russian airline Aeroflot emerged on Monday as the mystery partner of Italian banking giant Unicredit in its bid for Alitalia.
Speaking as the deadline passed for new bidders to enter the race, Unicredit head of investment banking Sergio Ermotti told reporters that Aeroflot controlled 95% of its bid consortium and Unicredit 5%.
Unicredit, Italy's biggest bank, was already on a short list of bidders for the troubled Italian carrier but had made it clear it was acting on behalf of an undisclosed partner.
Analysts had speculated that Germany's Lufthansa or perhaps Air France-KLM, which already owns a 2% stake in Alitalia, were behind the bank's bid.
Ermotti said other airlines with "European characteristics" were welcome to join the Aeroflot-led consortium.
Aeroflot, the largest East European carrier, is controlled by the Russian government and closed 2006 with a profit of 300 million euros.
The Italian government is planning to sell at least 39.9% of its 49.9% stake in Alitalia and has set a deadline of April 16 for non-binding bids.
New investors were given until Monday morning to decide on joining the list.
The Treasury announced after the deadline had passed that U.S. asset-management group Matlin Patterson Global Advisers LLC and Texas Pacific Group - groups that had beforehand shown separate interest in Alitalia - had formed a joint consortium to bid for the loss-making airline.
There are now a total of three bidders for Alitalia: Unicredit-Aeroflot; Matlin Patterson-Texas Pacific Group; and AP Holding led by Carlo Toto.
Toto is the chairman of Italy's second-biggest airline Air One, which is already a partner with Lufthansa.
The Alitalia race is now closed to new bids but the three listed bidders are allowed to expand their consortiums to include other partners.
Italian buyout fund Management & Capitali headed by Italian entrepreneur Carlo De Benedetti stepped out of the bidding process last Friday.
Investors appeared to approve Monday's developments, with Alitalia shares jumping 8.95% to 1.02 euros in morning trading in Milan.
The Italian government decided to privatise Alitalia at the end of last year.
The group has not posted an operating profit since 1998 and accumulated losses of 380 million euros last year, almost twice the amount it had predicted.
