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LONDON, April 27 (Reuters) - EasyJet's battle with
its founder and biggest shareholder Stelios Haji-Ioannou will
come to a head on May 22, when the results of an investor vote
on the airline's strategy to stick with a plan to buy more
planes will be made public.
Since the coronavirus pandemic brought air travel to a halt
and forced easyJet to park up all its planes, Haji-Ioannou has
publicly criticised easyJet's management and called for it to
scrap a 4.5 billion pound ($5.6 billion) order with Airbus
for 107 new jets.
But easyJet wants to stick with the order, saying it is
important for its future growth, and arguing the company has
taken steps to bolster its finances, meaning it can survive the
crisis and still take the new planes.
Haji-Ioannou, whose family owns just over a third of
easyJet's shares, has called for shareholder votes on the
removal of the low cost airline's chief executive, chairman,
chief financial officer and another director, in an escalation
of a long-simmering row with management.
Fellow shareholders will now have their say. They will vote
ahead of a general meeting which will likely be held as a
webcast. The results will be announced at the meeting on May 22.
EasyJet Chairman John Barton urged shareholders to vote
against Haji-Ioannou's resolutions, calling the meeting itself
"an unnecessary distraction".
"Having already taken decisive and urgent action to bolster
easyJet's liquidity for a prolonged grounding, the board remains
focused on successfully guiding easyJet through this continued
period of uncertainty," Barton said.
The removal of four directors would be "extremely damaging
and destabilising at this critical time", he added.
EasyJet agreed to defer the delivery of 24 Airbus jets
earlier in April, but said in its statement on Monday that
terminating the Airbus contract would expose the company to
"significant financial and operational risk".
"Liabilities triggered by an attempted unilateral
termination of the contract without cause would be hugely
detrimental and seriously impact the company's ability to
operate as a low-cost airline," easyJet said in its statement.
To win the votes, Haji-Ioannou's resolutions need backing
from over 50% of the shares voted.
($1 = 0.8043 pounds)
(Reporting by Sarah Young; editing by James Davey and Mark
Potter)
