Stelios easyJet row continues as he quits board
15.05.10
easyJet founder Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou resigned from the airline's board yesterday because he is unhappy with the airline's plans to increase its number of planes, adding that it is not on course to improve shareholders' returns. Fellow non-executive director Bob Rothenberg, who had been nominated by Sir Stelios' investment company easyGroup, also resigned.
Sir Stelios said he felt he would have greater freedom as a shareholder to try to change easyJet's ‘strategy of relentless growth at the expense of shareholders'. He added: ‘For some time, I have believed that the easyJet management is pursuing the wrong strategy. A look at the share-price graph over the last 10 years, practically a flat line, and zero dividends, are proof of that. How can you buy 200 aircraft with shareholders' money and create no wealth for them?’
Sir Stelios, who holds a 26.25% stake in easyJet, with his siblings taking this to about 38%, said he is considering if, and when, it will be necessary to call a general meeting at which he will ask shareholders to reject management's strategy buying up aircraft at the expense of any profit margin increase.
The row over strategy has already led to easyJet chief executive Andy Harrison announcing his resignation. He will leave in June to go to hotel and leisure group Whitbread, and will be replaced by Carolyn McCall, the current chief executive of the Guardian Media Group. The airline has also lost its finance director and chairman over the last 12 months.
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