The €1.4 billion Ryanair bid for Aer Lingus is facing a further obstacle with new figures showing that only one-quarter of the Employee Share Ownership Trust (Esot) are ex-Aer Lingus employees.
Ryanair was hoping to gather support from ex-Aer Lingus staff who took redundancy over recent years and who might be open to its offer.
An offer document from Ryanair being sent to all Aer Lingus shareholders this morning contains details of a tax-free scheme Esot members could avail of and which would allow them to take the proceeds of the Ryanair offer tax-free.
But figures released over the weekend show that only 25 per cent of the Esot's 4,700 members work outside Aer Lingus. A ballot of members will be needed if the Ryanair offer is to be accepted or rejected.
Ryanair said on Friday at a press briefing that it did not have the latest figures on Esot membership or the proportion of members no longer working at Aer Lingus.
The figures show that building support around ex-Aer Lingus employees within the Esot may turn out to be futile unless Ryanair improves its offer of €2.80 a share.
Last Friday, sources had suggested the Esot had 4,900 members, but the real figure is believed to be lower. With staff and unions remaining opposed to the takeover, a ballot of Esot members on the current offer would be unlikely to go in Ryanair's favour. Ryanair has claimed it would guarantee every Esot member €60,000, but this has been challenged, with Aer Lingus sources claiming it would be much less,about €31,000.
The offer document being sent out today points out that the European Commission has backed airline consolidation. The document says that Commissioner for Competition Neelie Kroes has spoken in public about her support for airline consolidation, once it does not drive up fares.
The document also shows that Ryanair envisages major job cuts in its initial period of ownership of Aer Lingus. It highlights the fact that Aer Lingus carried eight million passengers last year with more than 3,400 staff, a much higher passenger/staff ratio than Ryanair.
Some sources believe the ex-Aer Lingus employees might not necessarily vote for the Ryanair offer. It is understood some of them have sent letters opposing the offer to the Esot headquarters in recent days. Many of them are relations or friends of Aer Lingus staff.
The Esot would like to buy more shares, sources indicate, but any further purchases could be construed as acting "in concert" with the Government. Its only action has been to take up an existing option for shares in place with the Government.