2nd Apr 2014 12:04
LONDON (Alliance News) - African low-cost airline Fastjet PLC Wednesday confirmed that billionaire Stelios Haji-Ioannou's easyGroup Holdings is involved in talks it is having with potential long-term backers.
FastJet, which already has Haji-Ioannou as one of its backers, last month said it was in talks with a number of potential investors and Wednesday said easyGroup was party to the discussions.
In December fastJet said in a disclosure to the London Stock Exchange that easyGroup's holding in the airline had fallen below 3%. In November, its previous biggest shareholder, Lonrho PLC, had exited its investment completely.
Fastjet was founded when Rubicon Diversified Investments bought Fly540, which flies in Kenya, Ghana and Angola, from Lohnro in a reverse takeover in 2012. Haji-Ioannou got a stake as part of deal that included licensing the Fastjet name.
Since then Fastjet has been shrinking and restructuring the Fly540 operations in an attempt to make them profitable, while focusing on growing its own-brand operations. Those own-brand operations are mainly within Tanzania, but the airline has recently launched some cross-border routes including to Johannesburg in South Africa and Lusaka in Zambia.
Fastjet shares were down 3.8% at 1.66 pence Wednesday.
By Steve McGrath; [email protected]; @SteveMcGrath1
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