Italian investor buy of Alitalia set for approval

ROME (Reuters) - The administrator overseeing Alitalia's bankruptcy will approve the takeover of the airline by a group of Italian businessmen after getting the green light from the government, he said on Wednesday.

Approval from the administrator, Augusto Fantozzi, would pave the way for the Italian national airline to be relaunched in private hands after a difficult two-year hunt for a buyer that at times appeared to doom the airline to liquidation.

Fantozzi said he had already received the go-ahead from a committee examining whether the offer by the CAI consortium for Alitalia's assets was in line with market prices.

He said only approval from the Italian government, which owns the controlling stake in the airline, was needed now.

"I have the OK from the surveillance committee," Fantozzi told reporters. "We'll wait for the OK from the minister, and then I'll accept the offer."

Fantozzi is expected to hold a news conference at 10 a.m. EST.

CAI is offering 275 million euros for Alitalia's flight operations and 100 million euros in a mix of cash and debt for other units, and will take on further debt of 625 million euros ($789 million).

The group still faces opposition to the deal from Alitalia's pilot and cabin crew unions that reject new labor contracts under the takeover, but CAI is proceeding with the deal anyway.

Protesting workers have canceled hundreds of flights over the past 10 days and Fantozzi has said Alitalia will have to cancel 100 flights a day through the end of November.

(Reporting by Giselda Vagnoni; editing by Elaine Hardcastle)