William Andrew Tinkler has come up with a capital injection plan that would allow flybe. (2002) (Exeter) to reject the proposed takeover by Connect Airways, a consortium of Virgin Atlantic, Stobart Group, and Cyrus Capital, City A.M. has reported.
The carrier confirmed that it had received a "very preliminary, short and highly conditional outline contingency proposal" from Tinkler and subsequently agreed to hold a board meeting to discuss the proposal.
Several of flybe. shareholders, including the biggest one Hosking Partners LLP, previously opposed the sale to Connect Airways for a meagre GBP2.8 million (USD3.6 million), far below the airline's market capitalisation which currently stands at GBP43 million (USD56.1 million).
In June 2018, Tinkler was ousted from Stobart Group after the company had accused him of breaching his contract and fiduciary duty to shareholders, and trying to destabilise the company by trying to oust the Group Chairman Iain Ferguson and replace him with one of his associates.
Earlier in 2019, Tinkler bought a 12.23% stake in flybe., labelling the transaction purely an "investment decision".
Prior to Tinkler's ousting from Stobart, the Irish group sought to buy flybe. for a significantly higher sum than Connect Airways' offer.
