LONDON, June 27, 2026, 22:07 BST
- easyJet finished Friday at 583p, adding 1.53%, as London markets closed for the weekend.
- Castlelake’s 650p bid, which got turned down, is 67p higher than the last close. That’s about £508 million in equity value left on the table by Friday’s print.
- The Financial Times said leading shareholders want no less than 700p, which is roughly 20% higher than where the stock closed on Friday.
- Castlelake faces a 5 p.m. London deadline on July 5 to put up a firm bid or drop out.
easyJet plc (LON:EZJ) is looking more like a takeover spread bet than an airline play heading into next week. Shares finished Friday at 583p after rising 1.53%, still trading 67p under Castlelake’s 650p-per-share bid. The last price was 583p at 4:35 p.m. in London, according to Google Finance, with market cap about £4.42 billion and 758.01 million shares out.
That gap is the week’s clearer read. At 583p, shares show an equity value of about £4.42 billion. Castlelake’s newest offer prices the company around £4.93 billion on the same number of shares. The market trades about £508 million below the bid, meaning the stock is at an 11.5% discount to the offer price.
easyJet’s board hasn’t ruled out a deal. On Thursday, it turned down Castlelake’s fourth offer but agreed to a nine-day extension to the UK takeover clock and allowed the U.S. investment firm some access to commercial data. easyJet kept its stance that the 650p bid undervalued the airline and said there were still doubts about deliverability.
700p is the new number. The Financial Times reported Saturday that top shareholders want at least £5.3 billion, or £7 per share. Using Friday’s share count, £7 a share puts equity value at about £5.31 billion, which is £887 million above Friday’s close and £379 million over Castlelake’s 650p offer.
Shares are now trading above what sell-side analysts suggest. Latest Investors Chronicle data from LSEG shows 13 analysts have a 12-month median target of 450p, with the top end at 570p. Friday’s close at 583p puts the price about 2.3% over even the highest target in the group. The market is already pricing in more than analysts expect and still less than what’s on the live bid.
easyJet is now “effectively in negotiations with Castlelake” and the business is for sale at the right price, Goodbody’s Dudley Shanley told Reuters. “The narrative has definitively changed,” the analyst said. Reuters
Oldfield Partners portfolio manager Samuel Ziff, whose firm holds easyJet shares, told Reuters a new offer for the airline would have to be “significantly higher” than the one already turned down. “EasyJet has got a very valuable fleet, they’ve got very valuable slots,” Ziff said. Reuters
Castlelake’s setup remains in question. easyJet said the proposed vehicle would be split 49% for Castlelake and partners like Brookfield Asset Management NYSE:BAM, and 51% for EU nationals such as ex-Malaysia Airlines boss Peter Bellew and aviation executive Mark Breen. The board said it still has worries about who owns it, getting the deal done, and how long it will take to meet all the conditions.
The spread remains open. The 650p bid tops Castlelake’s previous 625p proposal, which Reuters put at about a 57% premium to easyJet’s May 29 close, but easyJet shares trade below the offer. Investors are still pricing in regulatory risk, possible board pushback, and the risk that a binding bid never appears.
Chris Beauchamp, chief market analyst at IG, told the Guardian the deadline extension signaled to investors that “some kind of deal is doable.” He said investors were looking for a better offer. Castlelake’s new deadline is July 5. Theguardian
