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AER LINGUS ESOT members will decide by ballot whether to accept the Ryanair buyout offer, it is understood. The ballot, which is not legally required but is intended by the ESOT's trustees, would follow a defence document being offered by Aer Lingus management and regulatory clearance, which may take several weeks.
But confusion reigned this weekend about how much the Ryanair buyout would actually be worth to employees and ESOT members who are no longer employees - largely because the number of ESOT members is unclear.
Aer Lingus has 3,200 employees according to its IPO prospectus. Ryanair used this "gure to calcluate that its 186m offer for the ESOT's shares would be worth around 60k per employee, the company said.
Sources close to Aer Lingus on Friday night, however, said that the ESOT had 4,800 members, meaning that the 186m would be worth around 38,750 per member - assuming all members were eligible.
The issue was confused still further when union sources saidFriday that there were just 3,900 members of the ESOT. This would still mean a payout far less than 60,000.
Attempts to get on-the-record comment from ESOT trustees were unsuccessful as of press time.
Ryanair said that the "gure of 220m, contained in its October 5 offer letter and reiterated Friday, represented its offer to the ESOT, plus the value of shares held by the pilots.
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YOU ARE HERE: 19 March 2007 / tribune.ie / 2006 / 10 / 22
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