EasyJet Shareholders Approve $7.6 Billion Apollo Takeover

EasyJet shareholders have voted overwhelmingly for a takeover by funds managed by Apollo Global Management, clearing one of the main hurdles to taking the budget airline private. The vote does not complete the deal.

The vote

Results published after the meetings on 11 November, as reported by Investing.com and ts2.tech, show:

• Court Meeting: 97.07% of votes cast in favour (about 287.2 million for, 8.7 million against). Votes cast represented 39.03% of eligible share capital, and 289 of the 334 shareholders who voted, or 83.29%, backed the deal.
• General Meeting: 96.67% in favour (about 247.8 million for, 8.5 million against), with 387,424 votes withheld.

Both exceed the 75% threshold easyJet set for each meeting. Turnout is a useful caveat: the court vote covered roughly two-fifths of eligible shares, so the percentages describe the votes cast, not the whole register.

Why some shares did not vote

To comply with European ownership and control rules, easyJet suspended General Meeting voting rights on about 233.9 million shares held by non-EU persons, according to Investing.com. The ts2.tech summary calculates that as 30.86% of 758.01 million issued shares. It says the approval figures already reflect the suspension and that the suspension is not opposition to the deal. EU persons held 35.07% of shares at the time of the meeting. We have not checked these figures against easyJet's own results announcement.

The terms

Per easyJet's deal page, the offer is £7.15 per share in cash, from an Apollo-backed bidding vehicle that ts2.tech names as Eagle Bidco. The airline says the price is about 81% above the share price before takeover speculation began, and 54% above the price just before the Middle East conflict hit the sector. Both premiums are easyJet's own framing.

The offer follows a competing bid from Castlelake. ts2.tech reports Castlelake had proposed 690p, so Apollo's price is 25p, or 3.62%, higher. Several outlets reported on 6 August that Castlelake walked away as Apollo's deal was agreed. ts2.tech notes that its own dating of the 715p proposal to the same day should be confirmed against the primary disclosure.

Shareholders can also take an alternative to cash: unlisted shares in Apollo's investment vehicle, subject to a three-year lock-up. The easyJet board makes no recommendation on that option. The board unanimously recommended that shareholders vote in favour of the takeover.

What happens before closing

Investing.com reports that the remaining steps are court sanction, for which no hearing date has been set, and regulatory approvals. EasyJet's page says it expects the deal to complete by the end of the first quarter of 2027. The long-stop date, after which the deal can lapse unless extended, is 6 August 2027, according to Investing.com. When the deal completes, the London listing is planned to end, per ts2.tech.

One thing we could not verify is the treatment of founder Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou's stake. A Politis headline in our search results says he "retains" a stake, but we did not open the article, and neither easyJet's page nor the vote reports address it.

What buyers say, and what is not yet proven

Reports on the deal mention commitments on fleet, headquarters and operating licences. These are stated buyer intentions. The vote does not show they have been carried out, and we have not seen the full list or the legal form of the commitments, so we do not repeat specifics.

An independent commentary piece in our search results asks what Apollo ownership would change at easyJet on costs and network. We have not reviewed it and make no claim about its conclusions. Private equity ownership of airlines has a mixed record, and any judgment about this deal would be speculation until Apollo's plans are published in detail.

What to watch

The key tests are the court sanction hearing date, the regulatory timetable and whether ownership-rule questions complicate approvals, given that more than 30% of shares carried suspended votes. Investors who chose the unlisted-share alternative will also face a three-year lock-up, which is worth reading closely before electing it.