All hands, abandon ship, or what ??
Regulatory announcement from LSE:
"FL Group realises profit from easyJet investment
Approximately EUR 140 million realised profit from time of initial investment
FL Group ("the Company" or "the Group") announces today the sale of its 16.9%
stake in easyJet in an international placement with JPMorgan as sole bookrunner
and JPMorganCazenove as joint lead manager. The estimated proceeds from the sale
of the holding amounts to approximately EUR 325 million.
By selling the stake FL Group has realised a profit of approximately EUR 140
million giving an annual return of around 70%, far surpassing the firms' target
investment objective of 20%. Proceeds from the sale will be channelled into new
investments during 2006.
From the time of its initial investment in easyJet in October 2004, FL Group has
had periodic contact with other owners of the airline as well as its management.
FL Group believes that the easyJet airline has great prospects and the sale of
the stake at this time is primarily due to other investment opportunities.
Hannes Smarason, CEO of FL Group:
"FL Group first invested in easyJet just under two years ago and the investment
has proved to be a great success which has provided a foundation on which we
have built FL Group. We have enjoyed being an investor in easyJet and believe
that the company is well placed within its industry and has a bright future.
Nevertheless, realising profit from the investment was appropriate for the FL
Group at this time. We are working on several interesting investment projects
and the sale gives us the opportunity to look at more projects and of greater
scale.
The sale of our easyJet holding does not affect our other investments in the
aviation sector and we remain committed to our investments in Icelandair,
Sterling and Finnair."
Share price down 9,55% today 