About a year and a few months ago there was big talk in German media of Lufthansa stocking up SAA shares big style - this is what they did with Swiss Air, which is now just called "Swiss". They were also interested in AItalia at some stage - probably to expand their Cargo fleet with MD11s but dropped that idea as well. Something must of scared them off SAA last minute (sharp rise in oil prices and fear of political instability), but if Goverment decides to sell shares and influence and get rid of the sick patient, Lufthansa might return and pull strings - after all they are StarAlliance Partners already and always on the lookout to buy ailing competitors to secure market shares against KLM/Airfrance.
Anyone know more ? Takeovers can happen very quickly before anyone even knows, when the time is right... and I believe then the heads in the beancounter department will roll if they can not produce expected results. Might be a good thing for SAA.