British low-cost airline easyJet said in a regulatory filing on Tuesday June 30 that the Haji-Ioannou family now holds under 30% of the company.
Stelios Haji-Ioannou founded easyJet, and, along with family members, remains its biggest shareholder, but he has been critical of its strategy. Earlier this year, he sought to oust its CEO, chairman and others as he objected to their handling of the coronavirus pandemic.
Last week, easyJet raised approximately £419 million through a share placing to help bolster its finances.
"As a result of the non-pre-emptive placing announced on 24 June 2020, the Haji-Ioannou concert party no longer holds 30% or more of the issued share capital of the company," easyJet said in a statement.
As such, easyJet said that an agreement between it and easyGroup, Haji-Ioannou's vehicle, drawn up under controlling shareholder rules, has been terminated.
A separate filing showed that the Haji-Ioannou family now owns 29.99% of easyJet, down from the approximately 33% it used to own. That holding could fall further should the conditional element of the placing be approved by investors on July 14.
Pilot Job Cuts
In other easyJet news, the airline has said that 727 of its UK-based pilots are at risk of redundancy, which is equivalent to approximately one-third of its pilots in the country, union BALPA said in a statement.
The airline is proposing to close bases at London's Stansted and Southend airports and at Newcastle in north-east England, BALPA said, adding that it is shocked by the scale of the job cuts.
EasyJet said in May that it needed to cut 4,500 jobs to stay competitive after the coronavirus pandemic caused a travel market slump.
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