Ryanair has lifted restrictions on share purchases by non-EU nationals due to a compliance threshold being met for EU ownership.
EU regulation 1008/2008 mandates that an EU airline must be majority-owned and controlled by EU nationals.
Non-EU nationals can own a maximum of 49.9% of an EU airline’s shares, and previously held shares restricted participation in meetings.
Ryanair will maintain voting restrictions until the board assesses the risk to its EU airline licences under current ownership rules.
Michael O’Leary previously expressed support for removing ownership restrictions while preferring to keep voting limitations to ensure EU control.
Ryanair shared: voting restrictions will continue to apply until such time as the Ryanair board determines that it is possible to vary or remove such restrictions without there being any risk to the airline licences held by the company’s subsidiaries under EU ownership rules.
If necessary, Ryanair will reintroduce the share purchase prohibition at an appropriate time to ensure that the proportion of the company’s issued share capital held by EU nationals is at least 20pc.:
