Lufthansa and the Almea Foundation now own 96 percent of Swiss International Air Lines via Switzerland-based AirTrust, Lufthansa and Swiss said in a statement on Friday.

Minority shareholders have offered 11.4 percent of Swiss shares on top of the 84.6 percent that major Swiss shareholders undertook to sell to AirTrust, the statement said.

AirTrust might now consider a squeeze-out merger of Swiss Air and AirTrust, with due compensation for remaining Swiss shareholders, the companies said.

Lufthansa owns 11 percent of AirTrust, a holding company set up to take over Swiss Air in stages without jeopardizing traffic rights that are governed by ownership rules.

The German carrier plans to increase that holding to 49 percent once it has received antitrust approval for the takeover from the European Union authorities. The Almea Foundation was set up to temporarily hold a stake in AirTrust.

AirTrust has been offered some 6.1 million shares by minority shareholders at 8.96 Swiss francs per share, working out to a cost of about 55 million Swiss francs (USD$44 million).

The small shareholders owned about 15 percent of Swiss.

The remaining shareholders will be given 10 trading days from June 9 to June 22 to accept the offer at the same price.