Rome — Just two bids have come in for ITA Airways, the successor airline to Alitalia, the former Italian national carrier, media reports said on Tuesday.
One of the bids is backed by Germany's Lufthansa and the other by Air France-KLM in combination with the US airline Delta.
According to the reports, US financial investor Certares, working along with Air France-KLM and Delta, put in a bid before the Monday evening deadline.
There was no immediate comment from the Italian Finance Ministry, acting for the Italian government as the sole owner of ITA.
On Monday, Lufthansa submitted a joint bid along with Swiss-based MSC shipyards for a controlling stake in ITA Airways.
One condition of the sale is that the Italian state is to remain a minority stakeholder, and another is that at least half the shares must be held by a European company.
To this end, Certares has founded an investment company in Milan, Italy's La Repubblica newspaper reported.
US investor Indigo, previously reported to have shown an interest, has not put in a bid, according to the reports.
Italy aims to nail down a bid for ITA, which took over at Alitalia in October last year, by next month.
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