easyJet Accepts Castlelake's £6.90 Offer, Valuing the Airline at £5.2bn
The fifth offer in 23 days finally moved easyJet's board. What Castlelake gets for £5.2bn, and why the deal needs a 51 percent European wrapper.
It took five offers and 23 days. easyJet said Sunday its board has reached an agreement in principle on Castlelake's £6.90-a-share cash proposal, a deal that values the British budget carrier at £5.23 billion ($6.94 billion) and would take one of the London market's most familiar names into private American hands.
The number that finally moved the board sits £1.30 a share above where the U.S. investment firm started. Castlelake opened at £5.60 on June 12, was rebuffed four times, and returned with £6.50 before landing the fifth proposal at £6.90, City A.M. reported. On a fully diluted basis, a company spokesperson put the value at £5.5 billion.
"Having carefully reviewed it with its advisers, the board of easyJet concluded that the financial terms of the fifth proposal are at a value that the board would be minded to recommend to easyJet shareholders."
easyJet statement, July 5, 2026
"Minded to recommend" is not a signed deal. The two sides extended the "put up or shut up" deadline under UK takeover rules to 5 p.m. London time on August 3, the point by which Castlelake must table a firm offer or walk away. Due diligence, financing terms and a shareholder vote all still sit between Sunday's statement and an actual delisting.
The ownership structure is its own story. The bidding vehicle would be 49 percent owned by Castlelake and 51 percent by EU nationals, among them Peter Bellew, the former Malaysia Airlines chief executive, and Mark Breen, who runs Dublin-based Oneiros Aerospace, a wrapper required under EU rules that demand significant European ownership of the airline's operations, Reuters reported.
Timing did a lot of the work here. easyJet spent June calling Castlelake's approaches opportunistic, made while its share price sat at comparative lows during the Iran war, which shut and then reopened the Strait of Hormuz and whipsawed fuel costs. Some large investors wanted more patience still. "I think they'll engage if the price is at seven plus," one large shareholder told the Financial Times before the agreement. At £6.90, the board has effectively decided the last 10 pence was not worth the risk of losing the bid.
Castlelake, for its part, says it intends to support the airline's growth and fleet modernisation programme. For passengers, nothing changes at the gate in August. For London, the sting is cumulative: easyJet would join a growing list of blue-chip companies that have set out plans to leave the London Stock Exchange since the start of the year. The planes will look the same. The share register, and the City's claim on one more household name, will not.
