Business liveBusiness Apollo gatecrashes easyJet sale with surprise £5.7bn takeover offer - business live Rolling coverage of the latest economic and financial news LIVE Updated 6m ago Lauren Almeida Fri 10 Jul 2026 07.50 BSTFirst published on Fri 10 Jul 2026 07.42 BST Share Key events 13m ago Introduction: Apollo gatecrashes easyJet sale with surprise £5.7bn takeover offer EasyJet planes queue to take off at London Gatwick Airport in Crawley, West Sussex From 13m ago Good morning and welcome to our rolling coverage of business, the financial markets and the world economy.
A surprise corporate twist this morning: the US private equity firm Apollo has agreed to buy the airline easyJet in a £5.7bn deal, beating a rival bid for the company by Castlelake.
EasyJet has reached an agreement in principle for an offer of £7.15 per share, and has said this morning that its board is inclined to recommend the deal to shareholders.
The airline had been set to be taken private in a £5.5bn deal with the US private credit group Castlelake, which had until 3 August to make its formal offer.
But easyJet said in a statement this morning: The proposed cash offer delivers a superior outcome for easyJet shareholders by providing a higher cash value than Castlelake’s latest proposal of £6.90 per easyJet share, submitted on 4 July 2026.
Apollo’s offer represents a 22% premium against easyJet’s closing share price yesterday, and an 81% premium compared with its price the day before the offer period for the bid from Castlelake.
Apollo also added that it would agree to take “all necessary steps” to satisfy any EU local ownership rules.
Current regulation requires European airlines to be majority owned by a European entity, Castlelake had planned around this by intending to bring two Irish airline executives on board.
Elsewhere today, Asian stock markets have been largely mixed – the Japanese Nikkei and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng are both up by about 1%.
The South Korean Kospi is yet again the stand out, up by almost 3%.
On mainland China however, shares are slipping – the SSE Composite is down by 0.3%.
The agenda 7am BST: EU consumer price index and harmonised consumer price index 11am BST: Delta Airlines eanings Key events 13m ago Introduction: Apollo gatecrashes easyJet sale with surprise £5.7bn takeover offer The sudden appearance of Apollo on the scene follows multiple rounds of talks between easyJet and Castlelake.
EasyJet had told investors earlier this week that it had reached an agreement in principle with the firm at £6.90 per share.
Apollo has said today regarding its chunkier offer: EasyJet management’s operational and commercial ambitions can be substantially accelerated via the access to incremental capital and longer-term business and strategic planning that a private company setting affords.
It said easyJet investors will have the option to roll their existing stock into a “stub equity alternative”, through which Apollo’s funds would hold their investment in the business.
Good morning and welcome to our rolling coverage of business, the financial markets and the world economy.
The agenda 7am BST: EU consumer price index and harmonised consumer price index 11am BST: Delta Airlines eanings Explore more on these topicsBusiness Business live Stock markets FTSE Share Reuse this content Most viewed Most viewed
