EasyJet, Ryanair court EU investors on concern over hard Brexit

Discount rivals EasyJet and Ryanair are shoring up their shareholder base in continental Europe in order to safeguard their right to fly there after Brexit. EasyJet is holding investor roadshows in France and Germany this week and last week in a bid to increase the proportion of stock held within the European Union once Britain leaves. Ryanair said Monday that it will remove the voting rights of non-EU holders in the event of a so-called hard Brexit. With less than a year to go before the UK is scheduled to leave the EU, terms of a post-Brexit relationship remain elusive. The slow progress of talks has forced airlines with strong ties to the UK to plan for contingencies, because under EU rules carriers must be more than 50 percent owned by people and institutions based in member states in order to have an operating license within the bloc. “On balance you would think common sense will prevail,” Ryanair Chief Executive Officer Michael O’Leary said Monday. “But the Brexit discussions have not been characterized by a lot of common sense so far.” Ryanair, though based in Dublin, wouldn’t fulfill the EU criteria after Brexit because it has 20% of its shareholders in the UK and a large number of US investors holding American depositary receipts. EasyJet’s EU ownership comes up slightly short of a majority at 49% once the UK is excluded. “In a hard-brexit scenario we’d have to go out and restrict the voting rights of non-EU holders,” CFO Neil Sorahan said. “It’s part of our contingency plan.”<br/>