easyJet shareholders: Who owns the most of EZJ stock?

easyJet (EZJ), one of the leading budget airlines in Europe, has not come out of turbulence just yet. 

After being knocked down by the Covid-19 pandemic travel restrictions, the airline is facing labour shortages and air traffic disruptions in key airports. This forced the company to reduce flights and the EZJ stock to plunge.

Despite the headwinds, easyJet still has a significant number of institutional investors holding its stock. Here we take a look at the biggest easyJet shareholders and their stakes in the company.   

What is EZJ?

easyJet is a British airline offering low-cost point-to-point flights across Europe. 

Headquartered in London Luton Airport, easyJet operates 322 aircrafts that fly 930 routes across 153 airports as of the first half of 2022. In this period the airline flew 23.4m passengers, compared to 20m passengers a year ago.

Sir Stelios Haji Ioannou, the son of Greek-Cypriot shipping magnate the late Loucas Haji-Ioannou, founded easyJet in 1994. The airline was the first of several businesses under the Easy family of brands. 

Previously, Stelios worked for his father at Troodos Shipping until the age of 25. With financial assistance from his father, he founded his own shipping company, Stelmar tankers. Stelmar debuted on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in 2001 and was sold to a competitor in 2005 for approximately $1.3bn.

easyJet’s first flights happened in November 1995: from London Luton to Glasgow on 10 November and to Edinburgh on 24 November. These flights were a part of a market campaign with the slogan of “making flying as affordable as a pair of jeans -  £29 one way”.

Six years after it was founded, easyJet floated its shares on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) at an offer price of 310p. Shortly after, easyJet joined the FTSE250.

Prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, easyJet flew 96.1m passengers in 2019. The number of passengers dropped to 48m in 2020 due to travel restrictions to curb the spread of the virus. It dropped further to just 20m in 2021, although the number of passengers has now slowly recovered with restrictions lifted. 

Who are the stakeholders of easyJet?

According to the London Stock Exchange data, easyJet has 758.01 million of outstanding shares. LSE did not provide the shareholders information. 

Yet who owns the most EZJ shares? Data from MarketScreener showed easyJet biggest shareholders spread between the Haji-Iannou family and institutional investors.

As of 26 July, the Haji-Iannou family – Stelios and his siblings Clelia and Polus – remain easyJet major shareholders, holding around 15.3% ownership combined or 11.73m shares, according to data from easyJet’s 2021 annual report. 

Stelios and Clelia hold the easyJet’s shares through their holding vehicle easyGroup Holdings Limited while Polys has the company’s shares through his holding vehicle, Polys Holdings Limited, according to the annual report.

According to Financial Times data at the time of writing, nine institutional investors hold a combined 30.92% of easyJet’s shares or 234.4m shares.

easyJet shareholders: Institutional investors

Institutional investors wield enormous power and include mutual funds, hedge funds, pension funds, and private equity. They typically have large capital, allowing them to move big volumes of shares and influence the stock price movements.

Despite the challenges faced by the aviation industry – labour and capacity constraints – institutional investors still hold easyJet stock in their portfolios.

The company has proved to be resilient in steering the turbulent aviation industry during the pandemic and the post-pandemic recovery period. In its third quarter of 2022, easyJet booked £1.75bn revenue, rising seven fold from  £213m in the same quarter in 2021.

easyJet narrowed its group headline loss before tax to £114m, from a £318m loss in the third quarter in a prior-year period. It flew 22m passengers in the quarter, surging from just 2.98m in the third quarter of 2021. 

Let’s take a look at who owns the most shares of easyJet among institutional investors. According to MarketScreener and Financial Times data as of 26 July, the top three shareholders of easyJet are as follows:

Credit Suisse Asset Management (Schweiz) AG

Credit Suisse Asset Management is the investment management firm under Switzerland-based global financial services company, Credit-Suisse (CS). 

Credit Suisse has the biggest proportion of easyJet’s stock among institutional shareholders of easyJet with 6.26% or 47.42 million shares.

As of July 2022, Credit Suisse ranks 21 out of top 50 global asset management firms by Assets Under Management (AUM), based on Adv Ratings data. 

The asset management division was established in April 2021 from the International Wealth Management. In the first quarter of 2022, Credit Suisse Asset Management had CHF 462bn of AUM. In 2021, the division had AUM of CHF 476.8bn.

Hargreaves Lansdown

Hargreaves Lansdown is one of the largest stockbrokers in the UK. It is the second largest institutional shareholder of easyJet, holding a 3.83% stake or 29 million shares.

Based in Bristol, UK, the company has over 1.6 million clients with £120bn of funds under its administration. In 2021, it added a record of 233,000 new clients. 

Société Générale

Société Générale SA is the third largest institutional investor in easyJet with 3.54% or 26.87 million shares. 

Founded by a group of entrepreneurs in 1864, the company is one of the leading financial services groups in Europe. In Italy, the company has been present since 1967. 

easyJet shareholders: Individual investors

Stelios, his sister Clelia and brother Polys are the biggest individual shareholders of easyJet based easyJet’s 2021 annual report. Combined, the three siblings own around 15.3% of stake in easyJet or 11.73 million shares.

Stelios and Clelia Haji-Ioannou 

Stelios and Clelia own the easyJet’s shares through their holding vehicle, easyGroup Holdings Limited. 

Clelia owns a 5.77% stake in easyJet (43.78 million shares), while Stelios owns a 3.72% (28.22 million shares).

Clelia was the co-investor of easyJet when Stelios founded the airline in 1994. 

Polys Haji-Ioannou

Polys Haji-Ionannu owns the stock through his holding vehicle, Polys Holdings Limited. Stelios’ brother, who is also the co-investor of easyJet, holds a 5.77% stake (43.78 million shares), equal to Clelia. 

Polys has a net worth of $1bn as of April 2022, according to Forbes. He runs his family’s shipping legacy with a 17-tanker fleet. He invests in commercial as well as residential real estate, particularly in Cyprus, Greece, and Norway.

Final thoughts

Knowing who owns the most easyJet stock can help you better understand the company's goals. Big investors typically have a large influence on a company's future potential.

However, it should not be the primary reason for your stock purchase decision. Whether easyJet  is a good investment depends on your investment objectives, risk tolerance, and portfolio size. Before making any investment or decision, it is critical to conduct your own research. And never invest money that you’ve cannot afford to lose.

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