Bid for easyJet?

[Stockpicker]

easyJet shares are up about 7% this afternoon as FL Group (already owns 13% of the company) announced it was raising extra capital - market assuming it'll be spent on EZY shares.

[G-CPTN]

Aren't they 'Islandair'?

http://icelandreview.com/icelandreview/daily_news/?cat_id=16539&ew_0_a_id=161500

[unablereqnavperf]

No its not a bid for easy its trying to raise money to complete the purchase of Sterling in Denmark! Nothing to do with easy. I think the easy shares may have climbed due to the trasffic figure and the closed period is about to start!

[Packsonflight]

Icelandair/FL goup is raising capital to pay for the Sterling/Maersk combo they just aquiered, so they are not raising money for Easy at this time, but surprise twist to this story might be to cut a deal with Mr. Stelios and merge Sterling/Maersk with Easy. Mr. Stelios, the biggest shareholder and founder of Easy (40%) might acept this plan since this would put his company in pole position in the Scandinavian market, wich is heavily regulated and hard to acess, ontop of everything this would strenghten Easy against Ryan. Maby accelerate the demise of SAS, and definately make Icelandair the biggest shareholder in Easy.

[African Tech Rep]

Market Report: EasyJet flies high on talk of Icelandic takeover
By Michael Jivkov
Published: 25 October 2005
News that easyJet's second-biggest shareholder has made a major expansion into the low-cost airline industry led to renewed talk that easyJet could also find itself on a shopping list. The Icelandic investment company FL Group, which owns Icelandair and a 13 per cent stake in easyJet, unveiled the $230m (£130m) purchase of Sterling Airways yesterday.
The move is an attempt to cash in on the fastest-growing part of Europe's flight sector. It pushed easyJet 13.75p higher to 282.75p. There have long been suspicions in the City that FL Group's ultimate aim is to takeover the airline. Analysts believe its latest acquisition makes the purchase of easyJet more important for the Icelanders. The tie-up with the Copenhagen-based Sterling adds 46 destinations to Icelandair's 22. It leaves the combined entity with the same number of aircraft as Germany's Air Berlin but well behind easyJet and Ryanair, the industry leaders.
FL Group will have a tough time winning easyJet. First it has to convince Stelios Haji-Ioannou, who owns 40 per cent of the group. He is unlikely to want to sell at anywhere near the current share price because the airline is the flagship business in his still-developing easy empire. Second, easyJet's articles of association and EU law make it difficult for a non-European Union entity to buy the company. Given that Iceland is not a member of the EU, FL Group will have problems executing such a deal.
http://news.independent.co.uk/business/analysis_and_features/article322015.ece

[Jetavia]

Packsonflight .. fully agree with you .. it is not a matter of if .. but when! Think of it Sterling want to start offering low-cost atlantic flights, Icelandair has the aircraft and experience to pull it of (transatlantic) using 757, 767, 787 .. the Easyjet brand could get a stronghold on most of the North-European market (Scandinavia and U.K.) and go atlantic as well if Stelios go for a deal.. just need a tie up with a U.S. low-cost operator in the other end.. perfect fit could be Jetblue based in New York...

[A4]

So FL Group is buying more .........

Just bought another 4,000,000 share bringing total holding to 59,954,337 or 14.98% of issued shares. :ooh:

Don't the rules change once you hold 15% ?

A4

And now, 30 minutes later, they've just bought another 4,800,000 shares which brings the total to 64,754,337 or 16.18%.

That's an investment of £26,000,000 today.......... Interesting times ahead................. A4 :confused:

[Buster the Bear]

Here we go:

http://www.iii.co.uk/news/?type=afxnews&articleid=5445985&subject=companies&action=article

[Golf Charlie Charlie]

<<<
Just bought another 4,000,000 share bringing total holding to 59,954,337 or 14.98% of issued shares.

Don't the rules change once you hold 15% ?
>>>

I think the threshold is not till 30% (or technically 29.999....%). At that point a buyer has to disclose his intentions, eg. make a full bid.

[FlapsOne]

Do they get seat on the board at 15% ?

[CaptainProp]

Does anyone know/have a qualified guess what this actually means to us?? In the long term.... If ezy is sold? Or even stays at the 16ish %.....
At the moment there seems to be total chaos at Sterling/Maersk. Fo's in "old" Sterling who were up for command will prob get ###### big time in another seniority system fight...
What if a merger becomes reality between Sterling and EZY?? Then what?? I'm asking simply because I have no idea.... Anyone?? :confused:

[Basic T]

Let's not jump too quick to conclusions....

..but with the GO takeover (or merger as they liked to call it) GO pilots were trained to EZY SOP's, seniority was kept on date of joining and the share options that the GO staff had were bought by EZY which resulted in an average £10.000,- per crewmember.

Surely if EZY and Maersk/Sterling were to become one group a similar system would apply.
Bare in mind that all EZY-crewmembers hold share options in EZY. :D :D :D :D :D

:D

[CaptainProp]

I thought the share deal was scrapped for crew employed after may-ish 2004.....??? Prob around the same time as they decided to bin the FO bonus!! :yuk: :yuk: :yuk:
/CP