Alitalia has accepted an offer from Air France-KLM for a 25% stake in the now private Italian carrier, airline officials announced on Monday
Alitalia Chairman Roberto Colaninno defined the agreement as ''an extraordinary accord which allows us to achieve our goals beyond our expectations''.
The decision to accept Air France-KLM's offer, he added, was ''unanimous and to the great satisfaction of all''.
Last Friday the board at Air France-KLM gave its green light to invest 322 million euros in Alitalia, which brought to over 1.2 billion euros the Italian airline's estimated value.
Alitalia's flight operations were sold last month to a private Italian investor group, Compagnia Aerea Italiana (CAI), for 1.052 billion euros.
This meant that Air France-KLM will pay ad additional 40 million euros for 25% of Alitalia.
Colaninno said the board's goal now was to run an efficient airline which placed the passenger at the center of attention.
With its 25% stake, Air France-KLM becomes the majority stockholder in Alitalia but it will not be able to buy the rest of the airline for a four-year period due to a lock-up clause in the CAI statue.
However, it can increase its stake in the event of a rights issue to recapitalize the airline.
The lock-up will become invalid should Alitalia be listed on the stock market.
Alitalia will be run independently from Air France-KLM, which will appoint three out of Alitalia's 19 board members and have two out the nine seats on the board's executive committee, which will be responsible for strategic decisions.
The alliance between the two airlines is expected to produce savings for Alitalia of up to 720 million euros over the next three years.
Air France-KLM has always been considered to be Alitalia's natural partner and the two airlines were already allied in the international SkyTeam group.
AIR FRANCE-KLM BEST SOLUTION, ALITALIA CEO SAYS.
Alitalia CEO Rocco Sabelli said on Monday that Air France-KLM was the ''best solution'' compared to the alternatives offered by Germany's Lufthansa and British airways.
Lufthansa, he added, ''showed interest in the Italian market but never in a concrete project for a new Alitalia, '' while British Airways never wanted to make a real investment.
The 'old' national carrier will cease to exist at 10 PM (21:00 GMT) Monday and the first flight of the 'new' Alitalia will take off from London for Rome at 6 AM (05:00 GMT) Tuesday.
This will allow time for Italy's national aviation authority ENAC to certify the airline's fleet and issue Alitalia a new operating license.
Last spring Air France-KLM made an offer to buy all of Alitalia, for 139 million euros plus assuming the carrier's debts of some 1.3 billion euros, but the plan was torpedoed by the airline's unions and opposition from center-right parties which later went on to win general elections in April.
In August the new center-right government changed Italy's bankruptcy laws to allow Alitalia's flight operations to be spun off and sold and encouraged the creation of CAI, which was specifically set up to buy Alitalia and keep it ''Italian''.
Alitalia's remaining assets will now be sold or liquidated, including its debts of over two billion euros.
