MILAN (Thomson Financial) - Intesa Sanpaolo SpA's rescue plan for ailing airline Alitalia SpA could involve up to 7,000 job cuts including redundancies at AirOne, the daily La Repubblica said, citing comments by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi to senators from his party.
According to La Repubblica, the plan envisages 5,000 job cuts at Alitalia and between 1,500 and 2,000 cuts at AirOne, which is likely to forge an alliance with the Italian flagship carrier.
In an unsourced report, the daily Il Sole 24 Ore said about ten Italian businessmen are ready to subscribe to a consortium to take control of Alitalia including the Benetton, Fossati, Gavio and Ligresti families, the Marcegaglia group, the shipbuilder Luigi Aponte, and the Clessidra and Equinox funds.
Intesa Sanpaolo is also trying to convince the Charme investment fund of the Montezemolo family, Sole said.
The new Alitalia will have resources of 800 million euros to one billion, Sole said.
A foreign investment bank could also be called in to support the project which could be Morgan Stanley, even though the bank has said it has as yet taken no decision, Sole said.
In a second stage Alitalia will seek an international partner which could be Air France or Lufthansa, the paper said.
According to Sole, Rocco Sabelli will take charge of the new Alitalia, though Roberto Colaninno could be enlisted as chairman. stephen.jewkes@thomsonreuters.com sj/cmr COPYRIGHT Copyright Thomson Financial News Limited 2008. All rights reserved. The copying, republication or redistribution of Thomson Financial News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Financial News.