Southend Borough Council own the freehold of SEN and Southend Airport Company Ltd. (SACL) hold a long lease of the site. Carlyle Global have recently provided a £125million loan facility to Esken which is convertible to a 30% equity stake in SACL at their option. It will be interesting to see the Carlyle reaction to RYR leaving SEN. Will they regret making the loan or will they view this latest setback as an opportunity to acquire not just 30% of the equity but perhaps the whole thing. Their problem as I see it is that they would end up owning just the Lease so could not redevelop the site for another, much more profitable, use.