Alitalia Chairman Maurizio Prato is confident of being able to propose a buyer of the state-owned airline to the government within a month, union sources said on Tuesday.
The board of the troubled Italian airline announced on Monday night it had shortlisted six possible buyers. They are: Air France, Lufthansa, Aeroflot, Italy's Air One airline, a consortium led by former Italian judge Antonio Baldassarre and American private equity group TPG.
In the wake of the developments, Alitalia shares soared in Tuesday's trading on the Milan bourse and closed with gains of 4.1%.
Prato told union representatives who met him on Tuesday morning that the shortlist of potential buyers would be narrowed down to one potential buyer by early November.
The name of the remaining candidate will then be put to the Treasury for final approval, the union sources said.
The Italian government decided at the end of last year to sell most if not all of the Treasury's 49.9% stake in Alitalia.
An attempt to auction the stake failed this summer after the three remaining bidders, including Air One, dropped out because of the conditions imposed by the Treasury.
Afterwards the Treasury said the conditions - which included shouldering the company s 1 billion euro debt -might have to be loosened.
Germany's Lufthansa indicated on Tuesday that the conditions remained a crucial factor. "Basically we are always open to talks, but obviously the conditions will have to be better than they are at the moment," a spokesman at the airline's Berlin headquarters told ANSA.
'READY TO TALK'.
Air France said it was "ready to talk as soon as Prato gets in touch". It added that the appearance of its name in the short list meant only that "Alitalia wants to set up talks".
Italy's second-biggest airline Air One said last week it was "determined" to buy Alitalia, adding: "The negotiations do not depend on us alone, but also on the strategies and interest of the other party".
It was unclear what criteria Alitalia intended to use in deciding who would be best to take it over.
After Tuesday's meeting between Prato and unions, the head of the pilots' union Fabio Berti said: "The considerations involved in the choice of the buyer are industrial because financial ones alone may not be sufficient".
The chairman told parliament last month that Italy's national carrier is "in a comatose state" and needs a strong partner "because it cannot stand alone".
Last August Prato unveiled a survival plan for the airline involving an injection of capital alongside job cuts and the paring back of unprofitable routes.
The plan also included the controversial decision to abandon Milan's Malpensa airport, currently one of two national hubs, and to concentrate solely on Rome's Fiumicino airport.
