Budget airline Flybe directors give shareholders ultimatum over takeover bid by Virgin and Stobart

Flybe has told its shareholders that if they do not approve its £2.2m sale to a consortium including Virgin Atlantic and Stobart Group, the firm will be wound up and they will receive no value for their shares.

Shareholders have been asked to vote for selling the airline’s parent company, in a deal which would give them 1p a share.

“If the Scheme is not approved, the Flybe Directors intend to take steps to wind-up the company and shareholders are likely to receive no value for their shares in Flybe,” the firm said in a statement on Thursday evening.

“Accordingly, the Flybe directors believe that the terms of the acquisition remain in the best interests of Flybe shareholders as a whole and unanimously recommend that Flybe shareholders vote in favour of the resolutions to be proposed at the court meeting and the general meeting.”

“Although the price per share offered by Connect Airways was disappointingly low, its proposal was ultimately the only proposal capable of immediate execution to enable Flybe and the Flybe subsidiaries to continue to trade as going concerns.”

Earlier this week it emerged the airline will also ask shareholders to vote on whether or not to remove its chairman Simon Laffin as the struggling airline tries to keep the cut-price takeover on course in the face of investor pressure.

Major shareholder Hosking Partners urged Flybe to call the meeting as it considers legal action over the low-ball £2.2m takeover of the airline.

Hosking wants to replace Laffin, who has served on the board for five years, with aviation industry veteran Eric Kohn.

The general meeting is pencilled in for 4 March.