Sir Stelios: Nasdaq listing would attract more easyJet investors
Sir Stelios Haji Ioannou launched easyJet in 1994 © easyJet
The budget airline’s founder believes a dual listing, with New York in addition to the London Stock Exchange (LSE), would attract more investors stateside.
Speaking to The Mail on Sunday at the weekend, the Monegasque resident said easyJet should consider listing on the Nasdaq stock exchange to attract more US investors.
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“Why would you object to a secondary listing on Nasdaq?” he said. “London hasn’t lost anything. You’re just attracting more shareholders from the States.”
Extra investment would certainly bring the airline closer in value to Ryanair. The lrish rival airline has a primary listing on the Irish stock market and one on Nasdaq, and is currently worth £19.6 billion, compared with £4.2 billion for easyJet, despite serving only 1.5 times more routes.
“I often look at the value of Ryanair and wonder why it is higher than Easyjet.”
Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou
In contrast, Tui’s shareholders voted to leave London in favour of a single listing on the Frankfurt stock market, considering that this would free the German holiday firm from having to adhere to ‘two separate regulatory regimes’, which created ‘inefficiencies as well as ongoing and periodic costs’.
Billionaire and philanthropist Haji-Ioannou, who founded the airline in 1994, still has a stake in the company worth about £650 million, however he no longer runs the business and conceded that the final decision lies with easyJet’s management team.
There seems no suggestion by Sir Stelios that easyJet should quit the LSE. However, to provide some context, other major companies are jumping ship.
Gambling giant Flutter has also begun trading in New York and has announced its intention to make the Nasdaq its ‘primary’ listing. Cambridge chip giant Arm and London-based commodities broker Marex are also crossing the Atlantic, along with packaging group Smurfit Kappa and education firm Pearson.