Lufthansa Wants Germany to Divest Stake by 2023

(Bloomberg) --

Deutsche Lufthansa AG aims to pay back all of its German government loans and buy back the state-held shares by 2023, Chief Executive Officer Carsten Spohr said in interview with Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung.

• CEO is optimistic that a shareholder meeting will back a 9 billion-euro ($10 billion) bailout by German government.
• Lufthansa is still working on an insolvency plan in case shareholders don’t give their approval, Spohr said.
• Number of expected job cuts of 10,000 could double if employees are added who work indirectly for 100 airplanes that will also be given up.
• The CEO’s annual salary won’t have a cap of 500,000 euros like in the case of former Commerzbank CEO Martin Blessing, but a fixed salary can’t be raised as long as taxpayers’ money is involved: Spohr.
• “The numbers for this year will be terrible, we will lose money each hour until the end of the year.”
• Lufthansa will offer a “return-flight guarantee” to passengers during the pandemic and expects increasing demand for private travel.
• NOTE: Lufthansa supervisory board backed the bailout deal on June 1

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