LONDON, Sept 17 (Reuters) - EasyJet's biggest shareholder,
the family of founder Stelios Haji-Ioannou, has decided not to
participate in the British airline's 1.2 billion pound rights
issue and has sold its rights to buy new shares, a source
familiar with the situation said.
The Haji-Ioannou family has sold 76.3 million nil paid
rights at 1.65 pounds, a 15% discount to the closing price of
the rights on Thursday, said the source.
The family has repeatedly said it did not plan to plough
more money into easyJet while the airline sticks to a deal with
Airbus to buy more planes.
As a result of the rights issue, the family's stake is set
to reduce to 15.2% from 25.3% when the new shares go live on
Sept. 28.
Both easyJet and a representative for the family declined to
comment.
(Reporting by Sarah Young; additional reporting by Abhinav
Ramnarayan, Editing by Paul Sandle)