Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou's representatives plans to embarrass airline's management over transparency and accountability
Months of public antagonism between the easyJet board and its biggest shareholder and founder, Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou, will come to a head on Thursday at an annual meeting at which he will attempt to further embarrass the management on issues of transparency and accountability.
He is not expected to attend, but representatives will ask that the second biggest institutional shareholder, Standard Life, is barred from voting on grounds of conflict of interest. It manages the pension funds of EADS, the company that makes Airbus airliners. Stelios opposes easyJet's purchase of Airbus airliners. Standard Life has declined to comment.
Stelios's representatives will demand to know if Standard Life was sent a Section 793 request to identify shareholderswhich – the letter and subsequent correspondence that this week infuriated the airline's founder. EasyJet said the letter was a routine procedure. The representatives will also ask for further details of how an easyJet advertising account reportedly worth up to £50m was awarded last year.
In questions loaded with references to pay, they will urge the remuneration committee to "publishing their proposals on the final formula for the calculation of executive bonuses sooner rather than later".
Fearful of the possibility of a public row, easyJet has said it will take the unusual step of asking shareholders at the meeting if there are any objections to media being present.
Should Haji-Ioannou surprise everyone by turning up in person, the airline's directors will invite shareholders to consider holding the meeting in private. Such a move would be a major blow to the company's efforts to present itself as an accountable and transparent business besieged by a haranguing dominant shareholder.
The airline last month reported a 16.7% year-on-year rise in revenue for the last three months of 2011 and an 8% rise in passengers, albeit against a snow-hit 2010.
Ofcom to consider licensing deal that would allow Everything Everywhere customers to enjoy super-fast mobile browsing
Customers of phone company Everything Everywhere, the largest UK network with 27 million subscribers, will have access to super-fast 4G mobile broadband before the end of the year if regulators grant permission. EE says it wants to put 4G into the hands of its Orange and T-Mobile customers, as well as those of Three, Virgin Media and other brands that use its network, a year ahead of schedule.
The UK has slipped behind other nations, including the US, Germany and Sweden, in the mobile broadband speed stakes, and those wanting to access the internet on the go using smartphones and laptops can find the experience frustratingly slow.
"The UK has been ahead in this industry for many years and we need to get that back," said EE chief executive Olaf Swantee. "As we are the largest in this market we believe it is our duty to lay the groundwork for a future digital Britain."
While Americans already have 4G services, other nations including France and Italy are well ahead of the UK in auctioning the airspace mobile operators need to deliver them. The British auction, the largest ever sale of national airwaves, has been delayed by legal wrangling between the operators and will not conclude until early next year. A full national rollout is now not scheduled until the end of 2013.
EE has asked telecoms watchdog Ofcom for permission to convert some of its existing 1800MHz (megahertz) spectrum, already used to carry voice calls, texts, and slower 3G internet connections, to 4G.
Created through the merger of two mobile networks and with a mast sharing agreement with Three, EE has enough spare capacity to offer a limited commercial service without having to buy new spectrum. With few 4G phones available, EE's service will at first work only on dongles – gadgets which plug into laptops to provide an internet connection via the mobile phone networks.
With 4G, internet connections will rev up to between 8 and 20 megabits per second, faster than the average home broadband service of 7.6Mbps. The 3G connections available in the UK today are much slower, with a web page taking around 8.5 seconds to load, according to Ofcom research, and speeds averaging 1.4Mbps.
EE's service, which will be on trial in Bristol from April, could launch by the end of 2012 if Ofcom grants approval by April or May.
A spokesman for the regulator said: "Ofcom has received an application from EE to vary its licence for 4G use. Ofcom is considering that application and once it arrives at a view it will consult with stakeholders."
The process could take between eight and 12 weeks, and will involve soundings with rival mobile phone networks and any other interested parties.
The Royal Bank of Scotland's chief executive and chairman may both have given up their bonuses but the state-owned bank will today unveil plans to lavish up to £785m on its workforce, including £400m to its investment bankers.
The boss of Heathrow yesterday said Chinese and South American airlines were being turned away from routes into London because the world's busiest airport was full to capacity.
The escalating legal battle over the rights to the iPad name in China has reached a Shanghai courtroom, in a case that could prevent Apple selling the wildly popular tablet computer in the country's commercial heartland.
The boss of one of the UK's biggest housebuilders came within a whisker of calling a housing market recovery yesterday, as Barratt Developments enjoyed booming sales since January and moved back into the black.
Shares in PSA Peugeot Citroen, the second largest car maker in Europe, surged yesterday on news that it was discussing an alliance with General Motors (GM) of the US, which could see the two companies take stakes in each other.
| 
| 
