Sir Stelios sends open letter to fellow easyJet shareholders in advance of 6th February 2020 AGM

Dear fellow shareholders,

It’s the time of year that we as 34% shareholders get to vote on the performance of the directors.

I have been an investor in the airline industry for 25 years and I’m pleased to see in today’s Q1 results that my theory about airline economics remains true.

That is when you grow the seats flown by only 1% y-o-y the revenue per seat goes up 9% y-o-y. By contrast, this time last year the increase in seats flown was 18% y-o-y which is why the revenue per seat fell by 4% y-o-y.

So I am now optimistic about shareholder value creation in easyJet for the next two years as fleet numbers are levelling off.

Moreover, it is now important to calibrate our expectations as shareholders for the earnings per share (EPS) for FY2021.

Back in FY15 easyJet delivered 138 pence EPS and following the dividend policy agreed between myself and the board some 50% of EPS was distributed as a dividend to all shareholders each year. Back then there were 241 aircraft in the fleet.

Current plans show a fleet of 352 aircraft by FY21, a growth of 46% since 2015. Hence the growth in the “capital employed” has been at least that.

Therefore we do expect a 46% EPS uplift between 2015 and 2021. That should be about 200 pence EPS by 2021. Clearly management has yet some way to go before we get to 200 pence EPS as the analysts forecast only 110 pence for FY21.

I will make a token vote at the AGM (6th of February) against the re-election of our Chairman John Barton. I believe that he is doing a good job listening to all shareholders and he has agreed to accept this token vote as a constructive criticism at the AGM, so I can communicate to all other shareholders the stretched target EPS of 200 pence by 2021.

Official Announcement

EASYJET TRADING STATEMENT FOR THE QUARTER ENDED 31 DECEMBER 2019

Strong start to full year 2020 with continued positive momentum including an upgrade in H1 revenue per seat guidance

Summary
easyJet has delivered a strong performance in the quarter. The delivery of self-help initiatives, robust customer demand and low levels of competitor capacity drove outperformance in both our passenger and ancillary revenue per seat leading to an upgrade to our H1 revenue guidance. Our cost performance was in line with expectations, while our Operational Resilience programme
continued to be a driving force behind a robust operational performance. easyJet expects to deliver a first half headline loss before tax better than H1 2019.
Please click here to view the full Official easyJet Announcement.

Media Coverage

22/01/2020 – Daily Express
22/01/2020 – Daily Mail
22/01/2020 – Daily Telegraph Business
22/01/2020 – Financial Times (Lex Colums)
22/01/2020 – Financial Times
22/01/2020 – The Guardian (Business)
22/01/2020 – The Guardian
22/01/2020 – The Times (Business)
22/01/2020 – The Times