(Adds expected pricing on the offering)
Feb 3 (Reuters) - Wizz Air's largest shareholder
private equity firm Indigo Partners plans to sell shares worth
500 million pounds ($650 million) via an accelerated
bookbuilding process, the bookrunner on the sale said on Monday.
The Indigo shareholders own 20.6% of Wizz Air, which is
worth about 624 million pounds based on Monday's closing share
price. Veteran low-cost airline investor Bill
Franke is Indigo's managing partner and founder and is chairman
of Wizz Air.
The shares will be offered to institutional investors.
Bookrunner said pricing in Wizz Air's secondary accelerated
bookbuild offering is expected at 40.15 pound per share.
The share sale comes just days after the European low-cost
airline upgraded its annual profit forecast after a strong third
quarter performance when it carried more passengers.
European short-haul airlines have benefited from strong
travel demand in recent months, with Europe's biggest budget
airline Ryanair and second biggest easyJet both
upgrading their outlooks in January.
The sale of Indigo shares could also help Wizz Air's
compliance with European Union shareholder rules following
Britain's exit from the EU.
Airlines must be more than 50% owned by European Economic
Area nationals to operate flights within the bloc, otherwise the
rights of non-EEA shareholders have to be restricted to allow
operations to continue.
Last year, Wizz Air chief executive Jozsef Varadi told
Reuters the airline had "some work to do" on this issue, as it
was not close to being 50% owned by EU nationals outside of
Britain.
Bookrunner on the sale JP Morgan said given that Indigo's
shares were not held by EEA nationals under EU rules, the share
sale would "at a minimum, maintain Wizz's current level of EEA
qualifying ownership, but more likely increase qualifying
national ownership".
Wizz Air said it would review shareholder restrictions it
had put in place in the days following the placing.
The number of ordinary shares the Indigo shareholders will
hold after the placing will be announced following completion of
the bookbuilding process.
($1 = 0.7694 pounds)
(Reporting by Noor Zainab Hussain in Bengaluru and Alistair
Smout in London; Additional Reporting by Rebekah Mathew in
Bangalore
Editing by David Goodman, Jane Merriman and Jonathan Oatis)