23 July 2007: Airline for sale, for only 70p

Italy should sell its national airline Alitalia for one euro, about 70 pence, according to Italy's infrastructure minister.

Italy's government has been trying to sell the airline but the latest auction collapsed last week when the final bidder pulled out.

At first glance 70 pence for an airline with about 180 aircraft flying to 100 destinations seems like a bargain, until you realise you also have to take on the airline's debts. These, as of May this year, amounted to roughly 750 million pounds.




[some data sources: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alitalia and http://corporate.alitalia.com/en/Images/Net%20Debt%20fine%20giugno%202007%20ENG_tcm7-22236.pdf]