Ryanair is to consider delisting its shares from the London Stock Exchange following Brexit.
The airline’s chief executive Michael O’Leary said activity on the LSE had “reduced materially” as an overall share of the company’s trading during 2021, “consistent with a general trend for trading in shares of EU corporates post Brexit”.
But he added that the issue is “potentially more acute” for Ryanair given that EU rules insist that airlines are majority owned and controlled by nationals from within the bloc.
Ryanair, which has a primary listing in Dublin, forced some UK investors to sell their shares in the company to avoid falling foul of the EU ownership rules in September.
The news came as the airline swung back to profit for the first time since 2019 over the summer, underscoring the low-cost carrier’s rapid recovery from the crisis which has gripped the travel industry.
The airline reported a net profit of €225m in the three months to the end of September, its first profit since the last quarter of 2019 in the months before coronavirus disruption swept through aviation.
O’Leary warned of a difficult winter ahead, and Ryanair forecast a full-year loss of between €100m and €200m.
For the six months to the end of September, the company’s fiscal first-half, Ryanair lost €48m, down from a €411m loss the previous year. In the same period in 2019, Ryanair reported a profit of €1.3bn
