Alitalia and KLM to merge
Sep 27, 1999, 9:58 am
#1
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Join Date: May 1998
Location: New York City
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Alitalia and KLM to merge
KLM Plans Merger With Alitalia
THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) -- KLM Royal Dutch Airlines and Italy's national carrier
Alitalia plan to extend their alliance into a full merger, KLM chief executive Leo Van Wijk
said Monday.
KLM could take an equity stake in Alitalia, Van Wijk said, once the Italian government sells
its 53 percent stake. KLM is also partially government owned.
Van Wijk said the companies received approval for a merger from European regulatory authorities in August, when their
alliance was cleared.
``We weren't just applying for an alliance. We applied for a merger,'' Van Wijk told reporters in The Hague. ``We don't have
to go back (to the European Commission) to implement what we are aiming for, which is a full merger.''
Although plans to merge the management into a single board headed by a chairman and a CEO were revealed earlier this year,
the airlines did not say whether they intended to swap stock or fuse operations to form one company.
It was unclear whether Alitalia would also seek to take a stake in KLM or whether the Dutch would gain a majority holding in
the merged company.
Analysts already called the alliance a virtual merger, but Van Wijk's comments confirm their assumptions.
THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) -- KLM Royal Dutch Airlines and Italy's national carrier
Alitalia plan to extend their alliance into a full merger, KLM chief executive Leo Van Wijk
said Monday.
KLM could take an equity stake in Alitalia, Van Wijk said, once the Italian government sells
its 53 percent stake. KLM is also partially government owned.
Van Wijk said the companies received approval for a merger from European regulatory authorities in August, when their
alliance was cleared.
``We weren't just applying for an alliance. We applied for a merger,'' Van Wijk told reporters in The Hague. ``We don't have
to go back (to the European Commission) to implement what we are aiming for, which is a full merger.''
Although plans to merge the management into a single board headed by a chairman and a CEO were revealed earlier this year,
the airlines did not say whether they intended to swap stock or fuse operations to form one company.
It was unclear whether Alitalia would also seek to take a stake in KLM or whether the Dutch would gain a majority holding in
the merged company.
Analysts already called the alliance a virtual merger, but Van Wijk's comments confirm their assumptions.
Sep 27, 1999, 10:08 am
#2
A FlyerTalk Posting Legend
Join Date: May 1999
Posts: 46,817
As noted above, this was anounced earlier but having said that it doesn't please me as a former KLM loyalist. What are they thinking. NWA, now Alitalia. IMHO, you are going the wrong way with the wrong airlines folks!