EasyJet founder Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou lost his battle against the airline's board today after shareholders overwhelmingly backed its multi-million pound pay plans.
Sir Stelios, who speaks for 37.4 per cent of the company's shares, failed to convince enough investors to join him in voting against the company's remuneration report, as well as the re-election of four directors including chairman Sir Michael Rake.
Outside of Sir Stelios's vote, the pay deal, which could see ten easyJet executives receive shares worth around £8 million over the next three years, won 97 per cent of shareholder's votes, while Sir Michael was re-elected with 99.6 per cent of votes.
The chairman said: "It's clear from the votes cast that easyJet's shareholders have overwhelmingly voted with the board and we thank them for their support."
Sir Stelios, who founded the airline in 1995, has written to Prime Minister David Cameron accusing easyJet's board of softening performance targets in order to make the share payout for executive directors more easily attainable.
The company thought it had seen an end to the dispute after it promised £190m in dividends to investors, landing the airline's founder and his family about £70m.
And the group, which operates more than 580 routes across 30 countries, sparked a surge in its share price last month when it said total revenues were up 16.7 per cent to £763m in the three months to December 31.
Three of the carrier's largest institutional shareholders - Standard Life, Sanderson Asset Management and M&G - came out in favour of the board before the AGM and pledged their support.
The remuneration report passed with 55 per cent of shareholder votes, including Sir Stelios's option, while independent non-executive directors Adele Anderson, Keith Hammil and Rigas Doganis were re-elected with around 57 per cent of votes.
Sir Michael, who was re-appointed as chairman with 56 per cent of votes, told shareholders at the group's meeting in Luton that Sir Stelios originally backed many of the issues to which he is now opposed.
"Whilst these arrangements with Stelios and easyGroup worked well initially, approximately a year ago Stelios instigated a series of increasingly personalised attacks on the board and individual members involving a number of inaccurate and misleading statements," he said.
Sir Stelios is currently working on his latest project, a new airline venture in west Africa to be called FastJet.
