A US private equity firm behind a series of low-cost airlines is selling its stake in Wizz Air for up to £500 million.
Indigo Partners, run by investor Bill Franke, is offloading as much as 20.6% in the Hungarian eastern and central European budget carrier to institutional investors.
Indigo also owns stakes in US carrier Frontier Airlines and Chilean low-cost airline Jetsmart among others.
More: Wizz Air raises annual profit guidance
Wizz Air reports soaring December passenger carryings
Wizz Air strengthens financial management team
Franke, co-founder and managing partner at Indigo, is chairman of Wizz Air.
The disposal of shares followed Wizz Air raising its annual profits guidance last week following a strong autumn performance which saw profits rise to €42.4 million in the three months to December 31.
The airline’s UK arm also announced new routes from Luton and Gatwick for this summer to Gran Canaria and Sofia.
Meanwhile, Ryanair and Wizz Air both reported an uplift in new year passenger carryings.
Ryanair saw group passenger numbers in January rise by 5% to 10.8 million with a load factor of 92%. The airline operated more than 62,000 scheduled flights in the month.
The January figure gave Ryanair a rolling annual total of 152.9 million passengers, a rise of 8%.
Wizz Air carryings jumped by 22.7% in the month to 3.1 million with an improved load factor of 90.2%.
This gave a rolling annual total of 40.3 million passengers, a rise of 18.6%.
Wizz Air reported that its CO2 emissions per passenger kilometre had reduced by 0.9% year-on-year to 58.9 grams.