The third offer, rejected by the easyJet board on Sunday, was pitched at 625p a share, or £4.7bn, and the US fund made the terms public ahead of a “put up or shut up” deadline at the end of this week. easyJet’s shares closed at 518p on Monday, up only 2%, a reaction that suggests little shareholder uprising. Founder Stelios Haji-Ioannou, whose family holds a combined 15%, has not commented. The bid structure relies on an EU partner – a company led by two EU nationals, one a former easyJet executive – that would hold a majority of voting rights while economic ownership remained mainly with Castlelake, a set-up easyJet’s board has called opaque and questioned for its compliance with EU ownership rules. The public move follows three private approaches that the board rejected, with the latest on Sunday, and leaves the contested “deliverability” of the ownership structure as a central obstacle.
Context
The public move follows three private approaches that the board rejected, with the latest on Sunday, and leaves the contested “deliverability” of the ownership structure as a central obstacle.
