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Italian national carrier Alitalia would be shut down unless it found a buyer, the Government said, in an apparent warning to unions that played a central role in deterring suitors.
Italy scrapped its seven-month auction after the last bidders pulled out, and now faces growing political embarrassment over the sale's failure.
"Other than a sale, there is only liquidation," Economy Minister Tommaso Padoa-Schioppa told the Corriere della Sera newspaper, "Making Alitalia attractive to an investor seems more difficult than we thought."
- Reuters
