Easyjet – AGM 22 May 2020
This extraordinary general meeting was called by companies controlled by Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou, the founder and main EasyJet shareholder with 34% of the capital. He proposes to remove from the Board the Chairman John Barton, the CEO Johan Lundgren, the CFO Andrew Findlay and an Independent Non-Executive Director Andreas Bierwirth.
This proposal is a result of a long-standing disagreement between Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou and the Board on the fleet renewal and orders of new aircraft from Airbus. Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou would like the Board to cancel the contract with Airbus for 107 aircraft worth according to main shareholder £4.5 billion ($5.5 billion).
ECGS considers that EasyJet has not provided sufficient information about the termination cost of the Airbus contract. It also failed to correctly reply to Airbus bribery misconduct. However, we consider that, based on the available information, the termination of the contract now is not in the best interest of shareholders. We have no information about the current progress of the remaining aircraft construction and scheduled deliveries and how much EasyJet should pay for the work already done by Airbus in 2020. We appreciate that EasyJet renegotiated deliveries and postponed all due in 2021. EasyJet has raised sufficient funds to give shareholders time to assess the development of the Covid-19 situation.
EasyJet and its subsidiaries are a low-cost airline carrier operating principally in Europe. Co. operates in the European short-haul aviation market. As of Sept 30 2017, Co. operated 862 routes. Co.'s total fleet as at Sept 30 2017, comprised 279 aircraft, split between 156-seat Airbus A319s, 180-seat A320s, 186-seat A320s and 186-seat A320neos. Co.'s main markets are the U.K., France, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Netherlands, Portugal and Spain.
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