Stelios lands £14m in share sale
STELIOS Haji-Ioannou has sold a further 4m easyJet shares worth £14.2m to fund the many other parts of his diverse empire.
Shares in easyJet slumped 7p to 355p - the price at which he sold his stake. The disposal, which he said was to fund 'a little shopping spree' trims his holding by 1% to 16.57%.
Speaking through his website, easyJet founder Haji-Ioannou said he was about to embark on a number of projects that needed financing, including a new cruise ship being bought for his easyCruise business, a 25-room hotel planned in South Kensington for his easyHotel operation and a fleet of Mercedes buses he is ordering for his easyBus set-up.
'So I thought it was prudent to rebalance my portfolio a little bit by converting some easyJet stock into cash,' he said.
He poured scorn on speculation that he was planning to sell off his entire holding. Rumours abounded after his last major stake sale, of £19m of shares last August and £16m the previous month.
Haji-Ioannou has made no secret of the fact that some of his businesses lose money, but he is determined to press on with new ventures ranging from pizza delivery to telecoms.
His brother Polys and sister Clelia hold a further 24% of easyJet stock between them.
