EasyJet wins vote opposed by Sir Stelios
EASYJET’s board claimed victory yesterday in the airline’s long-running feud with its founder Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou after shareholders voted in favour of a multi-million pound pay package for its top executives.
Just over 44 per cent of shareholders voted against the recommended pay-outs for executives at the annual general meeting, including Sir Stelios and his family’s 38 per cent share – falling short of the 50 per cent needed to vote down the remuneration report.
Stelios did not attend the meeting at the carrier’s headquarters in Luton but his spokesman was greeted with a frosty reception as chairman Sir Michael Rake hit back at the allegations made against the board.
Rake condemned the “increasingly personalised attacks on the board and individual members” and said the company “reserved the right to take legal action for potential defamation and breaches of brand agreement.”
Key shareholder Standard Life also vouched for the board while Sanderson Asset Management recognised Stelios’ entrepreneurship but urged “all shareholders respectfully to engage the board constructively.”
In a statement after the AGM, Sir Stelios said the board had “bought” shareholders’ votes with its promises to change the method used to calculate directors’ pay – his key concern.
The board has agreed to review the best way to measure the return on capital employed. Stelios said “this is great victory for shareholder activism”.
“I am looking forward to the changes on bonuses that should moderate remuneration in line with the modest financial returns they are achieving.”
Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou
“We welcome the steps that the board has taken to improve easyJet’s financial performance and to support its strategy. Today, we are voting in favour of all the resolutions”
Standard Life
“We … feel very strongly that easyJet still has significant potential and we fully support the board and the management and their efforts to unlock it…”
Sir Michael Rake
“We have advised Stelios that we have reserved our rights to take legal action for potential defamation and repeated breaches of the brand agreement.”
Sanderson Asset Management