Ryanair's O'Leary nets £16m from share sale

Ryanair boss Michael O'Leary has pocketed over £16m from the sale of a stake in the low-cost airline.

The outspoken Irishman sold 5m shares at €3.75 each, netting him €18.75m (£16.29m). He still owns 60m shares, or 4% of the business.

Shares in O'Leary's company have risen sharply in recent months, up from €2.8 in March and just €2 last October.

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It flew more than 5m passengers in May, up 9% on a year ago. At last week's full-year results, O'Leary said he expects to grow traffic by 15% in fiscal 2009/10 to 67m.

After tax profits for the coming year will at least double to a range of between €200m to €300m, he added.

The no-frills carrier posted a loss of €180m after taking a €222m hit on its stake in Aer Lingus. Underlying profit came in at €105m in the year to March, down 78%. Revenues rose by 8% to €2,942m as air fares fell 8% and traffic grew 15% to 58.5m.

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