Lufthansa to sell rest of LSG Group to private equity firm Aurelius

(Reuters) -Deutsche Lufthansa said on Wednesday that it would sell the remaining part of airline caterer LSG Group to private equity firm Aurelius, three years after it first put the business up for sale.

The German flagship carrier hopes the move will allow it to focus more on its core airline business, with chief financial officer Remco Steenbergen saying profitability and capital returns could improve further in that area as a result.

The company said it expects the deal to positively impact its operating margin and adjusted ROCE.

The transaction is expected to close in the third quarter, Lufthansa and Aurelius said. They did not give details on the sale price.

Lufthansa decided to divest LSG Sky Chefs in 2019. Its activities in Europe were sold at the end of that year to the Swiss company Gategroup for 1.1 billion euros ($1.20 billion).

However, the pandemic delayed the sale of the remaining parts of the business.

($1 = 0.9142 euros)

(Reporting by Linda Pasquini and Anneli Palmen, Writing by Rachel More, Editing by Friederike Heine)