EasyJet draws $1.35bn of UK coronavirus loan

Bloomberg

EasyJet Plc borrowed 1.1 billion pounds ($1.35 billion) to shore up its finances during the coronavirus pandemic, tapping into a UK guarantee programme in defiance of founder Stelios Haji-Ioannou’s escalating activist campaign.
The UK discount carrier accessed 600 million pounds in Bank of England-backed commercial paper and requested to draw down 500 million pounds from an existing facility that’s secured against aircraft, it said in a statement.
The move comes a day after Haji-Ioannou said he’s try to oust Chief Financial Officer Andrew Findlay as part of
a pressure campaign aimed at canceling 4.5 billion pounds of aircraft orders with Airbus SE.
The new loan came through the UK’s Covid Corporate Financing Facility open to investment grade companies.
With the money, EasyJet said it will have about 2.3 billion pounds to see it through a crisis that’s forced it to ground its fleet and idle staff.
The carrier also said it had reached deals with its pilot and cabin-crew unions on furlough plans, and that it’ll consider further liquidity options “given the possibility of a prolonged grounding.”
EasyJet has also been defending itself against Haji-Ioannou, the carrier’s largest shareholder with a 34% stake.
After the company rejected his request for a shareholder meeting to remove one board member, he pressed his case
by saying he’ll try to remove Findlay.
Ousting the CFO “is the best way to stop him writing billion-pound cheques plus to Airbus every year,” Haji-Ioannou said in a statement posted on the website of his holding company EasyGroup.
He opposes more loans, adding that ending the Airbus contract for more than 100 A320-series jets and holding off from buying more aircraft is the only way to “preserve the value for all shareholders.”