EC clears Italian postal service's investment in Alitalia

BRUSSELS, Feb 6 (Reuters) - The European Commission has concluded that an investment by Italy's state-owned postal service in the country's ailing national airline Alitalia did not constitute state aid and has closed its preliminary investigation into the matter.

Poste Italiane invested 75 million euros ($86 million) in Alitalia in 2013 as part of a 500 million-euro rescue package to keep the airline flying while it sought a foreign investor.

Alitalia has since agreed a tie-up deal with Abu Dhabi's Etihad Airways.

The Poste investment was questioned at the time, with International Airlines Group, which owns British Airways and Spain's Iberia, calling the move illegal and protectionist and asking the Commission to intervene.

In a statement on Friday, the Commission said that Poste had made its investment under the same terms and conditions as two private operators who were in a comparable situation.

"Public interventions can be considered free of state aid within the meaning of EU rules when they are made on terms that a private operator would have accepted under market conditions," it said.

Having had no response from from previous complainants within a set deadline, the Commission said it has now closed the preliminary probe.

Etihad bought almost half of Alitalia last year in a rescue plan involving heavy job losses.

The deal is expected to give Alitalia money to invest in more profitable long-haul routes and make it less reliant on domestic and regional services where it has struggled to compete against low-cost airlines and high-speed trains.

Italy's government plans to sell and list a minority stake in Poste Italiane in the second part of this year to raise fresh funds to cut debt. A ruling against Poste's investment in Alitalia would have been a problem, analysts have said.

($1 = 0.8738 euros) (Reporting by Francesco Guarascio; Writing by Agnieszka Flak; Editing by Greg Mahlich)