In order to save Lufthansa from bankruptcy, the German state joined the airline. The deal paid off. The Treasury should have pocketed several hundred million euros so far.
A good two years after joining Lufthansa, the German state parted with another block of shares. The Federal Finance Agency announced that the Economic Stabilization Fund (WSF) had reduced its stake to less than 10 percent. The state share had previously been around 14.1 percent. The largest Lufthansa shareholder is now the Hamburg billionaire Klaus-Michael Kühne with more than 15 percent.
The WSF has now "turned onto the home straight to end the stabilization measure in favor of Lufthansa," said the managing director of the finance agency, Jutta Dönges. The proceeds from the sale already exceed the amount that the WSF used for the acquisition.
After the business slump in the Corona crisis, the federal government saved Lufthansa from bankruptcy with financial aid of up to 6 billion euros. In this context, the WSF also acquired a shareholding of around 20 percent for 300 million euros as part of a capital increase. Lufthansa has already repaid the other financial aid such as loans and silent partnerships. Following a similar pattern, the federal government is now rescuing the gas importer Uniper, which got into trouble as a result of the throttled gas deliveries from Russia.
According to calculations by Reuters, the WSJ should have raked in more than 300 million euros in the most recent share sale alone. The papers are now worth more than twice as much as when he joined. When the first package was sold, the federal government probably took in around 270 million euros. The WSF must sell the remaining shares by October 2023.
