Ryanair ends Aer Lingus EGM call

RYANAIR has dropped its call for an Aer Lingus EGM but is considering legal action in a bid to gain answers to a number of its recent queries.

The airline — a 29.8% shareholder in Aer Lingus — has, since the start of November, made three separate pleas for an EGM of Aer Lingus stakeholders, in a bid to gain clarification on a number of issues.

Ryanair has been seeking confirmation from Aer Lingus that it will not make any additional payments to its defined contribution pension schemes without prior shareholder approval.

It has also demanded an end to what it has called a “cover up” of a Deloitte/McCann Fitzgerald report into Aer Lingus’ recent €30 million “leave and rehire” revenue penalty.

Ryanair has also requested Aer Lingus pay a one-off dividend of 20c per share (amounting to a total of around €110m) from its €900m-plus cash reserves.

Ryanair said while it is dropping its EGM request — after what it calls Aer Lingus’ breaches of Irish company law and the EU shareholder rights directive — it will continue to raise its issues, “through direct correspondence” and “if necessary, legal proceedings”.

In an open letter to Aer Lingus, published yesterday, Ryanair said Aer Lingus’ refusal to grant a meeting was a move to ensure that it [Ryanair] is “unable to exert any control or influence over how you operate the company or squander shareholder funds”.

Ryanair added it remains “deeply concerned” about the alleged €500m pension deficit at Aer Lingus.

It also explained part of its thinking behind its pleas for a shareholder meeting was to “provide shareholders with comfort on the company’s defined contribution pension schemes”.

In the letter, Ryanair expressed fear Aer Lingus will “once again, bow to the narrow vested interests of your employee and trade union groups and again raid shareholder funds to make further unjustified contributions to a defined contribution pension scheme”.

Aer Lingus welcomed the dropping of the EGM request, adding that it had informed Ryanair on numerous occasions that its request had been invalid.

It also said Ryanair’s allegation that Aer Lingus had breached company law and the shareholders rights directive is “completely without foundation”.