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The £5.7bn Deal That Takes EasyJet Off The London Market
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Apollo Global Management will pay £7.15 a share after rival bidder pulled out
Budget airline EasyJet has agreed a £5.7bn takeover by US private equity firm Apollo Global Management, ending a three-month bidding battle after rival US firm Castlelake withdrew on 6 August 2026, according to BBC News.
Shareholders will receive £7.15 per share, Reuters reported. That is 81% above the £3.94 the shares traded at on 28 May 2026, before news of a possible bid emerged. It also beat Castlelake's £6.90 offer.
If the deal completes, EasyJet will leave the London Stock Exchange and become a private company.
Three months of bids ended with Castlelake walking away
Castlelake, a US investment firm focused on aviation, began circling EasyJet in late May. The airline rejected its early approaches and accused the American firm of trying to buy it 'on the cheap'.
The two sides agreed a deal in principle in early July. Then Apollo, which owns Wagamama parent The Restaurant Group, came in with a higher offer, The Guardian reported. Castlelake stepped aside, leaving Apollo's bid unchallenged, according to CNBC.
Apollo says it does not intend to cut any jobs in the first 12 months after the takeover completes. It admits some roles tied to running a stock market-listed company could go, describing these as a 'limited number of roles in specific areas'. EasyJet employs more than 19,000 people and flies around 1,200 routes across 35 European countries.
Stelios keeps his stake, and Brussels rules keep half the airline in EU hands
Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou founded EasyJet in 1995 to offer cheap flights to Europe from the UK. Its first flights took off in November 1995 from Luton to Glasgow and Edinburgh. His family still owns around 15% of the business.
'My family and I intend to remain invested as long-term major shareholders of EasyJet for the next chapter in the company's journey', he said.
Air travel might not be as sexy as space travel, but retail investors understand it and names like EasyJet can't easily be replaced.
The deal still needs regulatory approval, including from the EU. Brussels rules require EasyJet's owners to be majority EU-based. Apollo plans to meet this by making the Haji-Ioannou family and other EU-based shareholders owners of around half the business.
EasyJet chief executive Kenton Jarvis said: 'We welcome Apollo's commitment to our business and our people, and believe that its experience in the aviation sector makes it a strong partner for EasyJet.'
Another household name disappears from London
Danni Hewson, head of financial analysis at AJ Bell, said the offer was well above where the shares traded before the Iran war but 'still woefully short of the company's pre-pandemic highs'. EasyJet carried around 93.4 million passengers in its last financial year, yet its shares never recovered their pre-2020 value.
'Air travel might not be as sexy as space travel, but retail investors understand it and names like EasyJet can't easily be replaced', Hewson said.
The deal now goes to a shareholder vote and needs court sanction and clearances from EU and merger regulators.
