Apollo tops Castlelake with £5.7 billion easyJet takeover bid

Apollo Global Management has agreed in principle to pay £5.7 billion for easyJet, offering £7.15 a share in cash and overtaking Castlelake’s rival proposal for the British carrier. The move came on Friday, July 10, 2026, and immediately sharpened a bidding war for one of Europe’s best-known budget airlines.

easyJet said the Apollo proposal values the company at about £5.7 billion and remains conditional, with no certainty that a firm offer will follow. The airline added that flights continue to operate as normal while the takeover process runs its course. Shares in easyJet rose sharply in early trading, with market reaction reflecting how far Apollo’s bid sits above the airline’s pre-bid share price and how much it improves on Castlelake’s fourth offer.

Castlelake had been seen as the likely winner after easyJet indicated it was minded to recommend a sweetened Castlelake approach worth about £5.2 billion, or £6.90 a share. That followed an earlier stage in the process that began after Castlelake first disclosed interest on May 29, 2026, and easyJet opened its books in late June. Apollo’s entry has now reset the process and forced easyJet to weigh whether a larger all-cash offer is more attractive than the bid it was already leaning toward.

The stakes go beyond the takeover price. Foreign private-capital ownership of a major airline draws closer scrutiny than a routine corporate acquisition because airlines are tied to route networks, landing rights, employment levels and fleet decisions that affect passengers and workers long after the purchase is completed. A new owner with a mandate to improve returns could look for cheaper operations, tighter staffing, changes to aircraft deployment or the sale and leaseback of assets. That is why regulators and governments tend to look more closely at airline control than at many other industries.

For passengers, the key question is whether a private-equity owner would preserve easyJet’s low-cost model while still pushing for higher margins through ancillary charges, capacity shifts or route rationalisation. For workers, the concern is whether a deal would bring pressure on pay, headcount or working practices at a company that relies on lean operations to keep fares down. Apollo’s bid has not answered those questions yet, but it has turned them into the central issue as Castlelake decides whether to formalize its competing offer by an early-August deadline.