{"id":2897,"date":"2026-07-06T15:41:51","date_gmt":"2026-07-06T15:41:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/?p=2897"},"modified":"2026-07-06T15:41:51","modified_gmt":"2026-07-06T15:41:51","slug":"easyjets-stock-shows-castlelake-bid-is-far-from-a-done-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/?p=2897","title":{"rendered":"EasyJet\u2019s stock shows Castlelake bid is far from a done deal"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p>The budget carrier finally agreed in principle to the U.S. investment firm\u2019s offer of \u00a36.90 per share in cash after calling previous bids too low. The airline\u2019s stock jumped Monday by as much as 11%, yet it languishes beneath even the third and fourth rejected offers by Castlelake.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/?p=2895\">Best high-yield savings accounts for\u00a0July 2026: Over 4% APY\u00a0without a\u00a0fee<\/a><\/p>\n<p>EasyJet and Castlelake haven\u2019t specified what will happen to the airline\u2019s assets, management and employees if the deal goes through. If Castlelake decides it wants to sell assets such as planes and prime landing slots, there may be some pushback over possible anti-competitive issues and the idea of stripping down one of the U.K.\u2019s pioneering carriers.<\/p>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>\u201cThere\u2019s still some doubts over ownership structure and regulatory approval, particularly with this deal potentially getting political attention with EasyJet being a well-known U.K. company,\u201d said Conroy Gaynor, a Bloomberg Intelligence analyst. \u201cEven though we think hurdles can be worked out, a \u00a36.90 price today, with some adjustment for time value of money, would imply about 100% probability of the deal happening, and we certainly are not there.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>EasyJet declined to comment Monday on the share price and the likelihood of a deal going through.<\/p>\n<p>Castlelake LP, a former investor in Scandinavian airline SAS AB, swooped in on EasyJet in May as the carrier was reeling from soaring jet fuel prices and suppressed demand after the Iran war. Prior offers were rejected, with EasyJet\u00a0calling\u00a0them \u201chighly opportunistic\u201d and saying the U.S. firm was trying to buy the airline \u201con the cheap.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The latest offer gives the airline an equity value of \u00a35.2 billion ($6.9 billion). That valuation increases to \u00a35.5 billion on a fully diluted basis, an EasyJet spokesperson said Sunday.<\/p>\n<div>\n<div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>The new offer is about 6% higher than the previous one of \u00a36.50 per share. In addition, both sides agreed to extend the \u201cput up or shut up\u201d deadline for a firm offer to Aug. 3 at 5 p.m. London time.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere can be no certainty that any firm offer will be made, even if any pre-conditions are satisfied or waived,\u201d according to the statement. It also said Castlelake has \u201ctremendous respect\u201d for the airline and employees, and intends to support the carrier\u2019s future growth and fleet modernization program.<\/p>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Alex Irving, an analyst at Bernstein, said \u201cthe most likely eventual outcome\u201d is for Castlelake to sell EasyJet\u2019s existing assets primarily to the three European network carriers: Deutsche Lufthansa AG, IAG SA and Air France-KLM. Some of its Airbus SE order book may be sold to non-European airlines, he said.<\/p>\n<div>\n<div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>The two sides have sparred over the potential deal in the past month. The investment firm said EasyJet\u2019s board has shown \u201cunwillingness to engage meaningfully,\u201d taking its bid directly to shareholders.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/?p=2883\">The tech attention crisis has hit the workplace. One company thinks AI is the cure<\/a><\/p>\n<div>\n<div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Castlelake first showed\u00a0interest\u00a0in EasyJet on May 29 when a four-week deadline was set. Within that time, the firm offered escalating bids of \u00a35.60, \u00a36.00, \u00a36.25 and then \u00a36.50 \u2014 all of which were\u00a0rebuffed. After the fourth offer, the carrier\u00a0sought\u00a0a nine-day deadline extension to July 5 and granted the firm some access to limited commercial information.<\/p>\n<p>EasyJet\u2019s most attractive assets include a fleet of 356 modern Airbus A320 family aircraft; an order book of 287 planes with an additional 100 purchase rights; and prime landing slots in London, Milan and Geneva. It also has a holiday business.<\/p>\n<p>Davy analyst Stephen Furlong said he doesn\u2019t believe Castlelake will break up EasyJet. Rather, the carrier may be slimmed down, with more of its routes focused on serving its holiday offerings.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn my opinion, this is going to happen,\u201d Furlong said.<\/p>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Lately, though, the budget carrier has been under pressure from surging jet fuel prices because of the Iran conflict. It\u00a0reported a loss\u00a0in the first half of the year as well as a drop in summer bookings.<\/p>\n<p>The company\u2019s biggest shareholder is the family of founder Stelios Haji-Ioannou with a 15.3% stake. The family hasn\u2019t commented publicly.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m sure they recommended partly knowing which way the wind was blowing with Stelios,\u201d Furlong said. \u201cI\u2019m sure Stelios will be part of the Castlelake bid.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>As part of the bid, Castlelake has teamed with Mark Breen and Peter Bellew, who was an executive at EasyJet before leaving abruptly in 2022. The bidding group also includes Brookfield Asset Management Ltd.<\/p>\n<div>\n<div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>As a U.S. entity, Castlelake is unable to gain full control of EasyJet because the airline operates under U.K. and European rules that require majority ownership and control by regional nationals. That means the investment firm needs a partner.<\/p>\n<p>The deal would take private an airline that went public in November 2000 at \u00a33.10, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Shares reached an all-time high of \u00a315.84 in early 2007 amid an aggressive expansion across Europe.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/?p=2881\">Top economist says AI just hasn\u2019t delivered on the productivity hype\u2014and it means a \u2018painful repricing\u2019 of markets is very possible<\/a><\/p>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Castlelake cannot take full control of EasyJet because U.K. and EU ownership rules require majority regional ownership, meaning it needs a partner<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2896,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[396],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2897","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-easyjet"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.7 - 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