No serious Italian bid for Alitalia so far-Prodi

By Silvia Aloisi

ROME (Reuters) - Outgoing Prime Minister Romano Prodi said on Monday an Italian bid for Alitalia (AZPIa.MI: Quote, Profile, Research), which has agreed to be bought by Air France-KLM (AIRF.PA: Quote, Profile, Research), would be desirable but so far no serious offer had been made.

Prodi made his comments as Air France-KLM's planned takeover of the nearly-bankrupt airline, approved by his centre-left government, enters a decisive week ahead of a March 31 deadline to win over combative unions opposed to the deal.

The unions, angry at Air France-KLM's proposals to slash or exclude from the deal nearly a third of Alitalia's workforce, are due to meet the Franco-Dutch airline's CEO Jean-Cyril Spinetta on Tuesday after previous talks ended in stalemate.

The planned takeover has become a hot campaign issue ahead of Italy's April 13-14 election, with poll favourite Silvio Berlusconi saying he would veto it if elected and urging an Italian consortium to come up with an alternative offer.

"We have always been open to this (an Italian consortium)... Of course it is desirable. The problem is whether it's there," Prodi said in an interview with Sky TG24.

"A proposal must be concrete, backed by resources, have an industrial plan -- serious things. So far we have not seen anything except for the plan that we have taken into consideration," he said.

On the campaign trail, Berlusconi said last week an Italian consortium led by local carrier and previous bidder Air One would rescue Alitalia from the "arrogant and unacceptable" French offer.

Air France-KLM's all-share offer values Alitalia at 10 euro cents per share -- a massive discount to the 0.53 euros per share market price just before the offer -- but also includes a bond buy-back and a 1 billion euros capital increase.