Intesa Sanpaolo unwilling to invest in Alitalia without union support
TURIN Italy (Reuters) - Intesa Sanpaolo is not prepared to invest in Alitalia if trade unions do not give their full support to a business plan drawn up by Gulf airline Etihad Airways to rescue the troubled Italian flagship carrier, the chairman of the Italian bank's management board said on Wednesday.
"For our part we have made our participation conditional on all problems posed by Etihad being resolved starting with agreements with the unions," Gianmaria Gros Pietro.
Intesa Sanpaolo is a key Alitalia shareholder as well as a creditor.
The Abu Dhabi state-owned airline said in June it had agreed principal terms and conditions to buy a 49 percent stake in Alitalia. [ID:nL6N0P6214]
The two carriers have been in talks since December but Italy has been reluctant to bow to Etihad's conditions over job cuts of around 2,200 and a restructuring of the airline's debt.
(Reporting by Gianni Montani, writing by Stephen Jewkes; editing by Oleg Vukmanovic)
