easyJet have accepted a takeover bid worth £5.7 billion from US investment firm Apollo.
Rival bidders Castlelake had made several attempts to purchase for the British low-cost carrier before Apollo joined the race in July. easyJet even accepted a £5.2 billion offer from Castlelake before Apollo made a higher bid.
Now Castlelake have dropped out, leaving easyJet’s board free to accept Apollo.
Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou, who founded the airline in 1995, still own a 15% share of the business. In a statement, he said that he and his family would ‘remain invested’ as long-term major shareholders.
On the reason for choosing Apollo, Haji-Ioannou said:
I am pleased with Apollo’s strategic intentions for the easyJet business, which aim to create more growth. The fact that Apollo, as one of the most well resourced and experienced institutional investors in the world, has decided to back and grow easyJet, the leading member of the easy family of brands, is testament to the strength of the easy brand and the business model of easyGroup Ltd.
Apollo said they had no intention of cutting any of easyJet’s 19,000 employees in the year after the takeover.
EU regulations stipulate that easyJet has to be majority-owned by EU citizens. The US investment firm are yet to clarify how this will be reflected in their ownership. Castlelake, also a US company, had proposed to run easyJet through a subsidiary managed by aviation experts Peter Bellew and Mark Breen. Apollo are yet to announce a similar scheme.
easyJet shareholders will receive £7.15 per share under the agreement, well above that proposed under Castlelake’s early bids but still below easyJet’s pre-pandemic value.
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