FJET.L Share News (FJET)

LONDON (Alliance News) - Shares in African low-cost carrier fastjet PLC shot up on Thursday after the company revealed the appointment of Mango Airlines boss Nico Bezuidenhout as its new chief executive.

fastjet shares were up 16% to 30.00 pence on Thursday afternoon following the announcement.

The company has been searching for a new chief executive since March, when Ed Winter stepped down a week after the group had issued a profit warning for 2016, blamed on "prolonged" challenges facing the African aviation industry leading to a dip in passenger numbers.

A call for Winter's resignation had been made by billionaire investor Stelios Haji-Ioannou, the owner of easyGroup Holdings Ltd which owns a 13% stake in fastjet. Haji-Ioannou blamed Winter for fastjet's "ridiculous cost overheads" and raised concerns the company would run out of money. Winter announced his resignation shortly after this.

In March, easyGroup also publicly published a letter in which it raised further concerns over fastjet's financial position. Haji-Ioannou said he was worried fastjet might not be able to pay its debts, potentially leading to insolvency, while also claiming the airline was in breach of its agreement with easyGroup for failing to publish passenger numbers.

In response to the letter, fastjet said it did not believe it had breached the licence agreement.

Later in May, fastjet revealed that easyGroup has also called for the removal of Colin Child as chairman, and said details of a general meeting surrounding this would be announced in due course.

Bezuidenhout will join fastjet as its new CEO on August 1 from Mango Airlines, the low-cost subsidiary of South African Airways. He has been CEO of Mango since the business started trading a decade ago. During his time with Mango, he has also twice acted as interim CEO of the South African Airways business.

"The board is delighted that Nico will be joining fastjet as CEO. He brings strong commercial and strategic skills and a wealth of experience of operating a low-cost carrier. This experience, together with his detailed knowledge of the markets in which fastjet operates, will be invaluable to the company as it seeks to capture the growth opportunities in the region," said Child.

Since fastjet's formation in 2012, it has seen a number of executive directors come and go, including former Chairman David Lenigas, who left fastjet in 2013.

Chief Financial Officer Angus Sanders resigned in 2014 for "personal reasons", before his replacement Nick Caine stepped down just over a year later in order to return to his family in Australia.

In December, Chief Commercial Officer Richard Bodin was forced to leave the board after three non-executive directors resigned, one of which was former interim Chairman Clive Carver. Bodin had to step down following this in order to balance the number of executive and non-executive directors.

By Sam Unsted; samunsted@alliancenews.com; @SamUAtAlliance and Karolina Kaminska; karolinakaminska@alliancenews.com @KarolinaAllNews

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