Russian airline Aeroflot pulled out of the bidding for Alitalia on Wednesday, leaving Rome's auction of the unprofitable airline in danger of collapse with just two players left.
Alitalia shares fell nearly 2 percent after Aeroflot's announcement and were then suspended. When the shares resumed trading they were down nearly 6 percent, but pared these losses to be down 3 percent in afternoon trade. The airline has a market value of around 1.2 billion euros ($1.6 billion).
Aeroflot cited a lack of access to critical information on Alitalia's business and restrictive conditions on the sale that would have hampered its ability to turnaround the carrier for its decision.
"Aeroflot believes that acquiring Alitalia under the current conditions would not be the right decision for it to take," it said in a statement. The Russian carrier's departure from the auction leaves smaller Italian airline Air One and US private equity fund MatlinPatterson as the only potential bidders ahead of a July 12 deadline to submit binding offers.