Whats all this about yet another fallout between the board and the Cypriot??
Any truth Fastjet.com ?? (possibly purchasing baby and renaming )????
Just a little update I found on this. It seems it is more like Stellios has his eyes on flybe. Article below:
It was blue skies all the way for Flybe as rumours from a City hangar suggested that Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou has the Exeter International Airport-based low cost regional airline on his radar.
Amid the turbulence elsewhere, the shares took off and touched 117p before closing 7p higher at 113p amid vague speculation the easyJet founder, who this week announced plans to set up a new discount airline called Fastjet, could possibly also buy Flybe currently valued at around £85m.
Broker Liberum Capital does not believe that Fastjet will pose a competitive threat to easyJet (9.5p cheaper at 344.25p) but if the aggressive Sir Stelios was to acquire Flybe and ‘bolt on’ a new business, Fastjet, that would certainly put the cat amongst the pigeons.
Sir Stelios’s move to set up Fastjet came a week after easyJet announced its first ever dividend to shareholders – worth £190m – with a mouthwatering £72m going to Sir Stelios who still owns 38 per cent of the equity.
He could easily part-finance a bid for Flybe which is trading 62 per cent below its December 2010 flotation price of 295p. But he would have a huge job persuading Flybe’s major shareholders to sell. A trust of the late Jack Walker, Blackburn Rovers’ former owner, holds a 48 per cent stake via Rosedale Aviation Holdings, while International Consolidated Airlines, the Anglo-Spanish holding company formed following the merger of BA and Iberia, owns 14.6 per cent.