Stelios drops bid to oust EasyJet director

A THREAT to oust a member of EasyJet’s board was removed yesterday in the wake of the airline’s decision to pay £190 million in dividends to investors.

Last month, founder and major shareholder Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou called for an extraordinary general meeting (EGM) of the company to consider the removal of Rigas Doganis, a non-executive director, from the board.

However, in a Stock Exchange announcement yesterday, the carrier said this request had been withdrawn and that it was looking forward to “working constructively” with Stelios’ EasyGroup.

The truce emerged just a day after EasyJet announced a one-off dividend of £150m and a maiden annual dividend worth £40m.

Stelios and his family own a 38 per cent stake in the airline and stand to pick up some £70m as a result of the payouts, which EasyJet said were partly the result of better-than-expected trading.

The carrier’s former boss, who stepped down from the board last year, has waged a long- running campaign against its expansion plans and called for cash to be returned to shareholders.

EasyJet chief executive Carolyn McCall has denied that the dividends were in response to the pressure and said the company’s strong balance sheet meant it would have made the payouts whether it had a large shareholder or not.

It told investors yesterday that it welcomed the withdrawal of the EGM request, which it believed represented an “unnecessary and costly distraction”.

“EasyJet looks forward to engaging constructively with EasyGroup as it does with its other shareholders,” the airline added.