Lonrho takes backseat in African airline deal, stock soars

Lonrho, the sub-Sahara focused investment company has sold off its airline division in an all-share deal worth 85.7m dollars.

Lonrho, the sub-Sahara focused investment company has sold off its airline division in an all-share deal worth 85.7m dollars.

The airline will be acquired by an outfit called Rubicon Diversified Investments and renamed Fastjet.

Rubicon has paid for the investment by issuing shares to Lonrho amounting to 73.7% of its total issued capital.

Subscribe to MoneyWeek

Subscribe to MoneyWeek today and get your first six magazine issues absolutely FREE

Get 6 issues free
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/mw70aro6gl1676370748.jpg

Sign up to Money Morning

Don't miss the latest investment and personal finances news, market analysis, plus money-saving tips with our free twice-daily newsletter

Don't miss the latest investment and personal finances news, market analysis, plus money-saving tips with our free twice-daily newsletter

Sign up

The founder of Easyjet, Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou, will also become a shareholder in the new venture and will assemble a specialist aviation team to run it, led by Ed Winter, formerly the Chief Executive of GO.

Lonrho says it will now become a passive shareholder, while the new management team turns Fastjet into a low cost scheduled passenger airline.

At 12:34, Lonrho shares were up 11.4%.

BS