easyJet agrees £5.7 billion takeover by Apollo after rival bidder withdraws

The board of easyJet, the pan-European low-cost airline, agreed on 6 August 2026 to a cash takeover that values the company at about £5.7 billion and would take it off the London stock market and into private ownership.

Under the terms set out in a joint announcement, shareholders would receive £7.15 in cash for each share from Eagle Bidco, a company indirectly owned by funds managed by Apollo, the US investment group. The price was 81% above the £3.94 at which easyJet shares closed on 28 May 2026, the last business day before the formal offer period began.

The agreement ended a contest between two American investment firms. The announcement said Apollo’s proposal followed a series of approaches from Castlelake, which culminated in a possible offer of £6.90 a share. The Irish Times, carrying a Financial Times report, said Castlelake announced it was abandoning its bid shortly before the Apollo deal was confirmed, and that both suitors had faced a deadline that week, set by the UK Takeover Panel, to table a firm offer.

Why the board said yes

Sir Stephen Hester, easyJet’s non-executive chair, said in the announcement that the board had weighed the proposal against the airline’s prospects as an independent company. “While we remain confident in the strength of our business and the opportunities ahead, we believe this offer appropriately recognises the quality of the business we have built and delivers immediate, certain and attractive value for shareholders,” he said.

The document also showed how far the shares had fallen during the year. The offer was 54% above the closing price of £4.64 on 27 February 2026, which the announcement described as the last business day before the outbreak of the current Middle East conflict. The Financial Times report said easyJet’s shares had been among the hardest hit of any airline after the Iran war began. On the day of the announcement they rose 3.1% to 672p, still below the offer price.

easyJet carries more than 100 million customers a year on over 1,200 routes to 165 airports in 37 countries, according to the announcement, and has run a package holidays business since 2019.

An ownership structure shaped by aviation rules

The deal is not a conventional buyout in which a single investor takes full control. The announcement refers throughout to airline ownership and control requirements, the rules governing who may own and control a licensed carrier, and the transaction was built around them.

Shareholders who prefer not to take cash can instead exchange each easyJet share for one unlisted share in the new holding company. The family of Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou, who founded the airline, gave binding undertakings to do so for 116,061,871 shares, about 15.31% of the company, and to vote for the deal. The announcement said it expected investors who roll over their shares to hold between 45.1% and 49.9% of the holding company, a trust linked to a management incentive plan to hold up to 5%, and the Apollo funds to hold the balance, capped at 49.9%.

“My family and I intend to remain invested as long-term major shareholders of Easyjet for the next chapter in the company’s journey,” Haji-Ioannou said, as quoted by the Financial Times report.

Apollo said there would be no change to the location or functions of easyJet’s UK headquarters or to its air operator certificates in the UK, Austria and Switzerland, and that existing employment rights, including pensions, would be fully safeguarded. It also intends to keep the licence under which the airline uses the “easy” brand, which is owned by Haji-Ioannou’s easyGroup.

What still had to happen

The takeover is structured as a scheme of arrangement, a court-supervised process under UK company law. According to easyJet, it needs 75% approval at each of two shareholder meetings, followed by court sanction. It also depends on merger control clearances in Austria, Egypt, Germany and the UK. The companies said they expected the deal to complete by the end of the first calendar quarter of 2027.