Ryanair has removed a restriction on non-EU nationals buying the group’s Dublin-listed shares in a move that could reduce the price gap between the airline’s ordinary shares and its US-listed stock.
In a statement to the London Stock Exchange on Friday, the airline confirmed EU nationals now own at least 50 per cent of the group. Under European airline licensing laws, carriers are not allowed to have more than 49.9 per cent of their shares held by investors outside the bloc.
This was an issue for Ryanair after Brexit when its existing UK shareholders suddenly became non-EU nationals, diluting the share of the company held by EU citizens from about 54 per cent to under 40 per cent.
The airline took steps at the time to ensure its EU ownership would not be further diluted, introducing the ownership restriction and barring existing shareholders from outside the EU from voting at its annual general meeting (AGM).
Chief executive Michael O’Leary indicated at the group’s AGM last September that Ryanair would return to 50 per cent EU ownership in the first half of 2025 as it continues handing cash back to investors through its share buyback programme.
On Friday, Ryanair said an ownership and control review of the group has established that EU nationals now own “more than 50 per cent of the company’s issued share capital”.
With that threshold crossed, Ryanair confirmed it has removed the prohibition on non-EU nationals buying its shares listed on Euronext Dublin. This means investors from EU third countries, including Britain, can once again buy the airline’s ordinary shares – although they will still be prohibited from voting at the airline’s annual meetings.
Mr O’Leary said last September that Ryanair would probably keep the voting restrictions in place even if it removed the buying restrictions, implemented in 2021, “because at least that would ensure that we maintain EU control”.
Citing the examples of CRH and Paddy Power owner Flutter Entertainment, he said Irish companies have seen their share prices soar in recent times after delisting from the Euronext Dublin and moving to New York.
“We need to do something similar with Ryanair’s stock,” he said at the September AGM. “I don’t think we will migrate to a US stock exchange listing because of the need to be majority EU owned. But certainly, once we get to [majority EU ownership], I would certainly be in favour of removing the ownership restriction.”
Ryanair’s Dublin-listed shares rose by close to 3.3 per cent in early trading on Monday to €21.07 per share.
