Castlelake’s offer does not feel close to a knockout price – and it still needs to get shareholders (and Stelios) on board

It’s an obvious tactic for a would-be bidder to deploy when its offers have been rejected three times by the target’s board of directors: go public with the proposed terms and hope the shareholders demand new talks.

Castlelake’s playbook at easyJet is standard stuff and, since the “put up or shut up” bid deadline falls at end of this week, it had to try something. In its dream scenario, Stelios Haji-Ioannou would launch one of his old-style rockets at the easyJet board to shake things up. However, the airline’s founder and still 15% shareholder (with his family) has said nothing so far in support of either side.