Air France-KLM's bid for Alitalia includes a share swap and a capital hike of 750 million euros ($1.09 billion), with up to 1,700 job cuts, Air France's Chairman Jean-Cyril Spinetta was quoted as saying.
Several Italian newspapers reported in their Sunday editions that Spinetta, speaking to Italian reporters in Paris, also said Air France would buy back Alitalia's maturing bonds and renew its fleet, with two or three new aircraft each year.
"We have proposed to Alitalia a share swap, which means that Alitalia will become fully part of the holding with Air France and KLM," Spinetta was quoted as saying by Corriere della Sera.
The share swap would allow the Italian Treasury, which is selling its 49.9 percent stake in Alitalia, to keep a minority stake in the new group, Il Sole 24 Ore said.
"Why did we choose the share offer? Certainly not because we lack cash, we have lots of it. But because we want to give a strong signal of our willingness to integrate Alitalia in the group," the newspaper quoted Spinetta as saying. Air France-KLM and small Italian airline Air One are the two top contenders to buy Alitalia, which loses more than 1 million euros a day. Alitalia's shares tumbled to a record low on Friday after it emerged that both offers were far below market price-with Air One bidding just 1 euro cent a share and Air France offering 35 euro cents per share, less than half Alitalia's closing share price of 0.75 euro on Friday.
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