easyJet Backs £5.5bn Takeover by US Investment Firm
easyJet’s board will recommend a £6.90-a-share offer from Castlelake valuing the airline at about £5.5bn, after rejecting four previous approaches; the shares jumped to a 52-week high. It is the second British corporate institution to agree a sale to American ownership in twenty-four hours, following Sky’s £1.6bn purchase of ITV’s channels — a deal whose new owner today promised ITV will stay “deeply British” while warning of job cuts.
Analysts’ verdict that UK-listed companies are being bought cheaply is becoming a political fact as well as a market one: two national institutions sold in a day sharpens questions the incoming government will face about takeover rules, listing reform and what, if anything, warrants protection. For easyJet the immediate consumer picture is unchanged — bookings, routes and pricing carry on — but private ownership changes whose interests set them over time. The Sky-ITV deal now awaits competition and media-plurality scrutiny with no permanent government in place to voice a view. Watch shareholder acceptance, and whether the Burnham government arrives with a position on either deal.