Lufthansa plans no buyback despite rise in foreign shareholdings

* Lufthansa says non-German shareholdings rise above 40 pct

* Move (NasdaqGS: MOVE - news) could trigger share buyback or other measures

* Says no immediate risk of excessive foreign control

* Shares up 2.4 pct (Recasts, adds EU probe on other airlines, shares)

By Victoria Bryan

FRANKFURT, April 22 (Reuters) - German airline Lufthansa dismissed the risk of it coming under undue foreign influence despite the percentage of non-Germans owning its shares rising to more than 40 percent, a move that could trigger a defensive buyback of its shares.

Germany's biggest airline said the total shareholding of non-German investors had reached 40.69 percent, but it was not planning any buyback for the moment. It said an analysis of its shareholder register gave no reason to believe there was any immediate danger of excessive foreign control.

It gave no further explanation in a statement on Tuesday, though its website said its biggest groups of shareholders after German investors were from the United States, Luxembourg, the Cayman Islands, Britain and Canada.

Aside from a share buyback, other steps it could potentially take to fend off a threat of foreign control include a new share issue or requesting foreign shareholders sell their stock.

Lufthansa shares were up 2.4 percent by 1409 GMT on Tuesday, outperforming a 1.7 percent rise in the blue-chip DAX index . The stock has gained 24 percent so far this year as a restructuring programme to improve profits takes effect. It also plans to resume dividend payments again for 2013 after scrapping them the previous year.

Lufthansa's shareholder list is also potentially important in a broader regulatory context, given European Union rules which mean European airlines must be more than 50 percent owned and controlled by European investors in order to qualify for operating licences awarded by the region.

The EU is examining some foreign holdings in airlines, such as Etihad's stake in Air Berlin (Berlin: AB1.BE - news) and Delta's in Virgin to see whether they comply with control and ownership rules.

The shareholding disclosure came as a source familiar with the matter said Lufthansa's IT infrastructure business, which the airline is trying to sell, is drawing interest from IBM (TLO: IBM-U.TI - news) , Hewlett-Packard and France's Atos (Paris: FR0000051732 - news) .

(Additional reporting by Christoph Steitz; Editing by Kirsti Knolle and David Holmes)