O'Leary cashes in £26m of Ryanair shares
RYANAIR chief executive Michael O'Leary has pocketed around £26 million after selling part of his stake in the budget airline yesterday
O'Leary gave no reason for his decision to sell six million shares, reducing his holding by 0.8% to 4.5 per cent. It still leaves him the firm's biggest individual investor. A spokeswoman for the company said there was "nothing unusual" about the move and said O'Leary had sold tranches of shares on a number of occasions in recent years.
She said he had already publicly stated plans to reduce his shareholding - he is thought to have raised around £100m from past sales.
Last year, the low-fares carrier posted lower profits for the first time since it floated on the Irish Stock Exchange in 1997. It said last week that prospects appeared more positive as it posted a 19 per cent rise in annual profits to €268.9m or £181m. It forecast that profits would rise with increased passenger numbers despite growing fuel costs.
• EasyJet said passenger numbers rose 21.9 per cent in May from a year ago to 2.55 million as it continued to expand in Europe. The airline said its load factor - an indication of how many seats it has filled on flights - was 84.1 per cent, 3 percentage points higher than a year ago.
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