EZY shares drop worse than BA!

[Rumbo de Pista]

Amazed on making a quick check of the last year's performance of EZY shares versus BA shows that BA was the better bet - losing 31.66% of price against 32.56% for EZY!

The Irish contingent, meanwhile, went up 6.3%. For what it's worth, FTSE 100 in the same period dropped 24.38% whilst FTSE transport dropped 16.27%.

I wonder what the bosses (in their beautiful new portacabins) are doing about it? Have they any rabits in the hat to impress the market with?

So, why are EZY so deep in the doldrums? And why are the Ryans doing so well?

Serious comment from those who know??

[Capitano]

It may be that City fund managers have finally realised what rubbish management easy has. Recently there has been discussions about putting stop to the tradition of management bonuses after a "succesful" takeover of companies. The motives for takeovers are dubious, as the management always get shedloads of money out of it but the shareholders do not necessarily benefit at all. Easyjet management is now paying themselves 10m after takeover of GO. There is no proof so far that easyJet management is up to the job, to be able to run succesfully this combined airline. On the other hand there has been a lot of proof that easymanagement is NOT up to the job, as we have seen numerous times; deicing fiasco when we lost millions two years ago, rostering disaster which, if they had listened to us more experienced people, would never have happened etc etc. easyJet has lost millions in mismanagement. People are treated with contempt and subsequently easy is faced with a number of resignations. Almost daily we hear about resignations. Do the management have the guts to inform the City how much company have lost money recently as resignations are seriously affecting the bottom line? Training budget is getting bigger and bigger to replace leaving people.

If GO had taken over easyJet the situation would have been totally different as the GO management had the trust of the financial institutions and the staff were respecting B Cassani & Co. It is hard to find easyJet staff speaking highly of the current management, on the contrary.

A lot has to change at easy before the staff and fundmanagers can trust that there is enough competence to run the airline. Hopefully those changes do take place sooner than later as we all wish for the success of the company.

[Buster the Bear]

The loss of influence on easyJet by Stelios has had a major impact amongst financial institutions.

Tha 'safe' pair of hands has been removed.

[In trim]

Rumbo

Haven't got the figures in front of me, and there is no doubt EZY shares have dropped, but have you taken account of the Rights issue which took place to fund the GO purchase? That caused a natural drop in share value.

IT

[RAT 5]

BTB.

Over 2 years ago Stelios announced, in a UK interview when discussing all his new ventures, that he had put a management in place at easyjet and thus would let them manage. He had more things on his mind and his hands were full. He was distancing himself!

I remind you that ej was a recommended buy last February, and it was already a hot rumour that Stelios would hand over in the near future. It might be argued that far from being safe hands, he has been fully aware of what was going on within, and allowed it to continue.

I just hope the new Chairman does not arrive with eyes wide shut, and is ready to get his backside burnt in the hot seat.

As for the rights issue, there is no way that it can be held accountable for the recent performance. That would have taken effect over the few weeks after the event. If you notice the share did dip, at one time down to 240, but then rose to 350 or so. Thus the recovery was well after the rights issue. The present slide is totally removed from that event, as the atumn rally showed.

I wonder if the GO purchase falters, or takes longer to bear fruit, will any of the bonus be refundable. Perhaps some of the beneficiaries will have moved on and be out of reach?

[Rumbo de Pista]

No, In Trim, I didn't - but then I didn't take account of anything at all. I just compared price move for price move, and found myself astounded that a company which seems to claim to be doing so well is in fact doing tragically badly!

If this is what happens to EZY's share price when they announce good profits, significant expansion, major (European!!) aircraft orders, etc, what hope is there for the future? Put another way, having seen their value as high as it was, is there any possibility it will ever get there again? I gather that some options were given to staff at about £4.50 or so - a sick joke now?

They seem to be a ship without a helmsman. Two companies, both with inspirational figures at their heads, have combined to be one organisation with faceless grey characters in charge. EZY management looks to be either committing suicide with the company's value or unable to influence it.

I think Buster is perhaps close to the truth.

In all seriousness, I give them twelve months to going bust.

[DouglasDigby]

Maybe those in the know have some insider knowledge about the on-going EZY pay “review” for pilots (the one that will make the overall package less!). Or, now that EZY & GO are working on one operating licence, GO crew no longer get staff concessionary travel, so those crew who live in Europe can’t get their GBP 12 (20 Euro) tickets home – very popular with morale & watch how many leave as soon as they can!

And what about the EZY cabin crew who want to get the merger bonus & then scoot off elsewhere? Finally, GO crew have been banned from leaving the aircraft on turn-round at places such as PRG for duty-free shopping (even though a crew duty-free van pitches up). Happy New Year – I don’t think so for EZY/GO!!!

[P.Pilcher]

I seem to remember on this board about a year or so ago disquiet was being expressed about Stelios' impending departure. Despite building Easy up from scratch with great success it appeared that as the company had become a big institution, the city considered that Stelios no longer had the ability to run his creation. Negotiations therefore took place behind closed doors to negociate his successor who the "city" could accept. This has now been done and Stelios has withdrawn as carefully and politely as possible so as, no doubt, to harm the price of his Easy holding as little as possible. One wonders what the situation would now be at Easy if Stelios was still at the helm. After all, he has proven his enteurprenurial ability, but maybe his style has not pleased the city who wanted one of their "clique" in charge of their investments.

It is so often not what you know but who you know in this world, which may be why so many contributors to this board complain about "c**p management.

[GustyOrange]

Captino,

If the managament are aware of price sensitive information as you imply, they are legally required to inform the market.

The fall in the share price is largely irrelevant as as Easyjet still have a far higher rating than BA.

Gusty

[Rumbo de Pista]

Gutsy,

If that's the case, why did the EZY mob offer their staff options which they may have known would never be worth exercising, and why are the Irish doing so much better?

ps If I'm wrong about the options, could someone let me know? I'm working on something I was told 'in a pub'!

[zoru]

i think the main reasons for the share slide are:

1- oil prices (easy are not fully hedged).

2- drop in load factors(competition hots up).

3- stelios and his sister still own a large chunk of the shares(think its over 50 %) and with his other ventures not doing so great the market expects that he will be off loading in the not too distant future.

when/if iraq blows up expect around 40 usd for oil and about 200 p for easy shares (266 last)...only for the brave! ;)

back to the turkey sarnies.

[BTB]

Ratty: Busta The bear and BTB are different persons! Avoid callsign confusion, please!!!:eek:

[Bearcat]

All I know is I bought BA at 95 p and sold at 1.50p recently. Not bad for a humble skipper. They will Trouser themselves soon if the Iraq debacle occurs. I will be going back in at less than 1.20. Up to you boys and gals if you want to take a punt........as for Easy do they have more or less tangible assets than BA?

[Buster the Bear]

BTB, is there an imposter here?

My info about the financial institutions regarding Stelios leaving was based upon several financial reports in the broadsheets.

There is also a concern about future growth, dba, managing two fleets and the integration of the Airbus into easy. Shareholders demand profit, hopefully easyJet are correct about their future strategies?

[stormin norman]

Having flown Esy in the early days the service was pretty good
and punctual, but like all big expansions this has gone down the pan. Couple this with problems getting to Stn.Ltn by road and rail and parking, BA is now providing cheaper flights from more accessable airports such as Lhr,Lgw.
Showing programmes that only ever shows passengers having problems is not a good way to advertise your service.
Still there's always a market for stag nights to amsterdam !

[FlapsOne]

Norman

BA is now providing cheaper flights from more accessable airports such as Lhr,Lgw.

You don't think that the fact that EZ is the second biggest operator from LGW is relevant perhaps??

Just before the first Gulf War exactly the same gloom and doom about oil prices filled the media for weeks - they couldn't get enough of it. Every airline on the planet was going to go bust apparently.

Well that's just history now isn't it?

[AndyL]

LHR - a more accessable airport?

[Hand Solo]

Than Luton? Yes, by far!

[Stelios]

EZY has been losing it's shine ever since the TV programmes have started to show it's inability to be flexible and accomodating to it's passengers.
Instead it showed an aggressive "it's your problem" style attitude because "you get what you pay for - so what the hell do you want anyway" stance.
Coupled to that the attitude of the management towards it's biggest asset, doesn't really help the front line "service" in any shape or form, leading to more disillusionment and desertions.
2 fleets, different aircraft, expenses rocketing...
I predict a very turbulent year at EZY and I for one will be looking elsewhere where the grass is less orange.

[Brakes to Park]

Stelios , one can only hope that your next employer does not demand high standards of grammar and spelling on its application form.

[noflare]

DouglasDigby

May I suggest you recheck your source of information within the GO ranks coz your posting is totally innaccurate and untrue.

Speak to the BALPA boys re the pay talks !:eek:

[ILUV2FLY]

So BAs shares fell slightly less than Easy last year? Big deal!
BA is on a 5 year share slide and is still closing routes and
laying off staff. Easy and Ryans are still opening routes and
recruiting. The obvious answer is buy Easy and ryans and
sell BA....if u can find someone dumb enough to buy em!
The future belongs to the low fare boys.

[Stelios]

Brakes to Park,

Not sure what you're getting at, but usually when someone says something about spelling, they have no other point to make and it's the sign that they agree with the poster and can't REALLY set a realistic and perhaps even a convincing counter argument.

Isn't it true - tall chap?

[In trim]

ILUV2FLY,

Totally agree with your post, but also feel that the Ryan's will soon find the bubble bursting.....threads like their current activities in relation to the IAA and 900hours rolling hours limitation show that they are 'pushing the envelope' just a bit too much, and that can't last forever.

EZY have a good sound business model which is proving robust. The Go integration is going very well. With the new route announcements you can already see EZY starting to join the dots within the Go network and thereby extract better efficiencies from each airport.

On these threads at the moment there is a vocal minority who do nothing but "have a go" at EZY and it's management. It is true that all is not rosy (where is?), and they are in the middle of negotiations on T+C's. However, look at the numerous other threads on the state of BA, BACX, MYT, etc. and I know where my money is!

In trim.

[overstress]

And they say BA pilots are smug!

(I am one!)

[FlapsOne]

overstress

Never mind. Hope you get better soon.:D

[Atropos]

If the new pay deal gets voted through I'm sure we'll all be feeling a lot better soon! Good luck in 2003, I hope I'm never as unbelievably smug as some of the posters on this web site! Lets hope no issues come up requiring a united front by all the members of BALPA eh!

[DouglasDigby]

Sorry, NoFlare, but my information is straight from the horses' mouths (not implying anything there either!).....

It's not just cabin crew who are leaving (or plan to leave) - how many GO payroll office staff are left? Not many!! And there's more office staff who won't move to orange world either!

Just to add to morale, 4 GO SCCMs have been demoted for not passing the Orange SEP - yes, it's all going very smoothly........:(

[FlapsOne]

Your horse's mouth speaks with forked tongue! Your Staff Travel facts are wrong. Sorry if that hurts.

Of course lots of Go office staff left - they didn't want to move or commute to Luton........who would!!

Would you pass someone who failed an exam?

[Few Cloudy]

No-one has so far mentioned that easy staff have only been able since November 2002, to sell their shares. Since these shares are still quite a bit above the buy price in 2000, it isn't surprising that a bulk sale is taking place.

This in turn influences other holders of course. I think that the buyers of cheap shares will continue to sell, while the trend is downwards - buyers at a higher price will probably weather the storm and hang on. If that surmise is correct then there should be a bottoming out in a month or so...