Flybe will wind up airline if shareholders don’t back sale
Flybe directors have warned they will be forced to wind up the airline if shareholders do not approve a sale to a consortium led by Virgin Atlantic and Stobart Air.
In a statement on Thursday, they said they believe the terms of the acquisition remain in the best interests of Flybe and warned shareholders their shares are likely to be worthless if it doesn’t go through.
The consortium, Connect Airways, has offered £2.2 million for the airline’s parent, which Flybe admitted was ‘disappointingly low’.
Flybe has already agreed to sell Connect its operating assets – the airline and the website – for £2.8 million in a deal which doesn’t require shareholder approval.
But on March 4 shareholders are due to vote on the sale of the parent company.
The directors’ statement described a challenging air travel market.
"There have been a number of airlines who have gone out of business over the past year and several others have issued profit downgrades," it said.
"While Flybe had made tangible progress in delivering its strategy, maintaining momentum had been hampered by the challenging market environment.
"Ongoing fuel and currency impacts presented particularly significant headwinds for Flybe as did the rapid and significant tightening on Flybe’s liquidity from the card acquirer market.
"In addition, the general economic outlook and conditions had impacted the business leading to a further weakening in consumer demand, affecting cash, revenues and profit adversely."
Bev
Editor in chief Bev Fearis has been a travel journalist for 25 years. She started her career at Travel Weekly, where she became deputy news editor, before joining Business Traveller as deputy editor and launching the magazine’s website. She has also written travel features, news and expert comment for the Guardian, Observer, Times, Telegraph, Boundless and other consumer titles and was named one of the top 50 UK travel journalists by the Press Gazette.
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