Flybe plan £300m stock market float
29.11.09
Flybe is preparing for a stock market flotation that will bring a windfall for its staff and shareholders, the Times reports. The Exeter-based regional budget airline, which has twice shelved plans to float in the past, is expected to be valued at around £300m. The newspaper reports that Merrill Lynch, the airline’s long-standing adviser, has been instructed to prepare for a listing next Spring.
The directors, led by chairman and chief executive Jim French, are reported to have decided that the rebound in stock markets this year has cleared the way for the airline to go public. It would mean a bumper payday for investors, including the family trust of Jack Walker, the late Blackburn Rovers owner, which controls 69% of the business.
Mr French will also be rewarded as he has a 7% stake. Staff have 9% and British Airways owns the remaining 15%, which it acquired when BA Connect, its regional airline, was 'sold' to Flybe in 2006 (the deal involved BA paying Flybe to take on the loss making airline, with BA receiving the shares).
Management are reported to want to wait until March to float, when full-year figures for 2009 are published. It believes that substantial value has been added since the takeover of BA Connect. The airline has been planning to float since 2005 but two previous attempts were shelved, most recently in 2008 because of the global financial crisis.
Flybe operates 180 routes between 55 European airports. It was founded in 1979 as Jersey European Airways before being taken over by Jack Walker’s steel empire in 1983. After several name changes, it settled on Flybe - or flyBe - in 2002.
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