Easyjet attracts takeover interest from US private credit firm
Budget airline carrier Easyjet has drawn takeover interest from private credit firm Castlelake, which could make the airline the latest UK-listed company to be snatched off the stock market.
Castlelake said it was in the “early stages of considering a possible offer” for Easyjet on Friday, but was yet to approach the company’s board.
The firm, which is majority owned by Brookfield Asset Management. also cautioned that there was no certainty it would make a bid for the group.
Under UK takeover regulations, Castlelake faces a June 26 deadline to make a firm bid or walk away.
Castlelake and aviation
US based Castlekale has roughly $36bn in assets under management, and has become a significant lender to the aviation industry over the past two decades.
it has leased planes too carriers including Delta and Qatar Airways.
The firm also took a significant stake in Scandavian airline group SAS after its Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2023, alongside Air France-KLM, but has since sold the holding.
It also held talks with Spirit Airlines earlier this year, as the US budget carrier scrambled to secure a buyer before it went into bankruptcy, but it ultimately declined to move forward with a deal.
Easyjet blues
The Luton-based airline has seen it’s share price languish in recent years, as customers shifted towards other budget carriers including Ryanair and Wizzair.
Shares have fallen by more than a third over the past year, and lost more than half their value over the last five years.
Its shares closed on Friday at 398p, giving it a market value of roughly £3bn.
The airline is also bracing for a continuing difficult year, with jet fuel prices doubling after US strikes on crucial oil fields in the Gulf.
Oil prices were also sent surging after Iranian forces closed the Strait of Hormuz, clogging a fifth of the world’s oil supply.
In April Easyjet said it would lose £540m to £560m for the six months to the end of March, compared with a £394m loss for the same period a year earlier.