by Thorsten Koch

The federal finance minister, Olaf Schulz, would like to guarantee a small profit once the state leaves the Lufthansa Group. Among other things, this profit ought to refinance Corona aid measures. Previously, the federal government had agreed, with the board of the group and after months of negotiation, that the federal government would help the airline with 9 billion Euros.

The goal is to save jobs

The federal government would like to hold a 20 percent stake in the group. However, there should be no blocking minority, depite previous reports of this being the case. Nevertheless, the federal government will appoint two independent experts to the supervisory board. The Lufthansa Group has around 138,000 employees. There are tens of thousands of jobs in question.

Clear conditions

The financing of the aid package for the airline is made up as follows: silent deposits of 5.7 billion Euros, a state-secured loan of up to 3 billion Euros, and a direct stake of 300 million Euros by the state. A prerequisite is compliance with sustainability goals – among other things, Lufthansa should buy new aircraft. In addition, there are the following conditions: state money must not flow into tax havens, the managers on the Executive Board shall have to forego 20 percent of their basic salary by the end of September, and no bonuses to staff nor dividends to shareholders may be paid in the process of stabilization. The agreement has yet to be approved by the bodies of Lufthansa, the steering committee of the state economic stabilization fund, as well as the EU Commission.