Wizz Air Jan passenger numbers rise; Indigo sells down stake

Low-cost carrier Wizz Air said booked passenger numbers in January rose 22.7% as its largest shareholder offloaded a majority of its stake in the airline at a discount to Monday's close.

Passenger volumes for the month increased to 3.15m from 2.6m a year earlier. The load factor improved 2.1 percentage points to 90.2%.

Wizz said January carbon emissions were 58.9 grams per passenger kilomentre, down 0.9% year on year.

On Tuesday Wizz's largest shareholder, the private equity firm Indigo Partners, sold shares worth £500m through an accelerated bookbuilding process.

JP Morgan, the bookrunner for the placing, said 12.43m shares were sold at 4,015 pence a share. Indigo now holds 2.54m shares in Wizz.

The airline has a 49% per cent share ownership cap for nationals outside the European Economic Area and Switzerland to comply with European Union rules, something Wizz would need to monitor with Britain's departure from the EU.

Wizz said the sale was likely to increase qualifying national ownership, but said it will review the placing and restrict shares if necessary.

The move comes a week after the firm lifted profit guidance for the full year to between €350m - €355m on the back of strong third-quarter results.