Outgoing Alitalia chairman Giancarlo Cimoli did not receive a severance bonus or 'golden handshake' for his early departure from the helm of the national carrier, his lawyer said on Monday.
Attorney Salvatore Trifiro' issued a statement in which he denied that by contract Cimoli was to receive eight million euros for ending his contract with Alitalia ahead of time.
"There have been no negotiations between Mr. Cimoli and the Treasury in regards to a severance payment of any kind," the attorney added.
Reports that Cimoli was to receive a 'golden handshake' for leaving Alitalia sparked criticism from both the government and opposition, as well as unions and consumer groups, over the fact that he had failed to keep the airline from accumulating major losses.
Speaking on Monday, Labor Minister Cesare Damiano said there could only be a bonus for a positive result, which was not the case at Alitalia under Cimoli.
The Alitalia board was dissolved last month after the resignation of Air France KLM CEO Jean Cyril Spinetta which left it with only two members.
On Friday, the Italian Treasury, which holds a 49.9% stake in Alitalia, presented a list of its candidates for a new board which did not include Cimoli and indicated that Berardino Libonati should be the new chairman.
Alitalia this week, or early next week, is expected to issue a short list of buyers for a controlling stake of no less than 30.1% in the airline which the government has decided to sell.
The list will be drawn from the 11 bidders who expressed an interest last month. Those on the short list, of no more than seven, will be invited to present formal offers.
Most observers believe the short list will include Air One, Italy's second biggest airline; Unicredit, the country's largest bank; US buyout fund Texas Pacific Group; the recently created Management & Capitali (M&C) investment fund of financier Carlo De Benedetti and footwear maker Diego Della Valle; American investment fund MatlinPatterson Global Advisers; and British private equity group Terra Firma Investments.
Other offers came from the Virgin Islands-based investment firm Benstar-Saturn; Milan businessman Paolo Alazraki; the Italian pilots' association Unione Piloti; and Porcellana Castello, a northern Italian business consortium headed by the entrepreneur Terenzio Servetti.
The 11th bidder was Fabio Scaccia, a professor of aeronautics, who presented a bid as an "indignant protest" at the way Alitalia has been managed over the past decade.
The government decided in December to privatize Alitalia, which has not reported an annual profit since 2002 and in 2006 accumulated additional losses of 380 million euros, after losing more than 221 million euros the previous year.
Alitalia announced the 2006 losses on the day before the tender deadline, and said it had enough cash-on-hand to remain afloat at least for the next 12 months but could no longer respect the 2005-2008 business plan of the airline's current management.
