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Germany raised e760 million euros (US$760 million) from the sale of a stake in Deutsche Lufthansa AG, unwinding all of the holding it took to keep the flagship carrier afloat during Covid-19 lockdowns.
The country’s Economic Stabilisation Fund, or WSF, sold its remaining 9,92 percent stake in Europe’s largest airline via an accelerated bookbuilding to institutional investors, according to a statement late Tuesday.
“The total proceeds of e1.07 billion generated for the WSF from the sale of its stake significantly exceed the e306 million invested to acquire it by e760 million,” said Jutta Doenges, who is responsible for the WSF as managing director of the finance agency. With this outcome, “the participation of the WSF ends and the company is back in private hands,” she said.
The joint bookrunners of the block placement announced on Tuesday that the WSF had sold about 7.4 million Lufthansa shares representing about 6,2 percent of the share capital at e6.11 per share, a discount of 3,35 percent compared with the airline’s closing price.
Lufthansa in November repaid the last of its e9 billion bailout ahead of schedule, enabling the government to pare its stake at a significant profit.
Germany’s richest man may have been one of the buyers, after saying he wants to acquire more shares in Europe’s biggest airline. Klaus-Michael Kuehne is looking to boost his 15.01% stake according to a filing last week, after investing a chunk of a fortune he made in logistics into the carrier.
The latest developments for the carrier come shortly after it said it reached agreement with pilots to increase pay and bar strikes for about a year. Europe’s largest airline has been wrestling with labour disputes that exacerbated an already chaotic summer travel season.- Bloomberg
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