[ad_1]
Michael O’Leary is back on the flight path for a possible stock incentive payout of up to € 100 million in the next few years after a notable change in the fortunes of Covid-battered Ryanair stocks in recent weeks. as investors bet that a trio of new vaccines will transform the prospects for Europe’s largest low-cost airline.
The stock incentive was part of a new contract to keep the group’s chief executive, O’Leary, at the airline, but it sparked considerable controversy when it was voted on last year because investors typically don’t like companies that grant. great share-based incentives for their CEOs.
The award granted O’Leary 10 million share options at an exercise price of € 11.12 that it could exercise if Ryanair’s annual after-tax profit exceeded € 2 billion through 2024 and / or shares of the airline exceeded 21 euros between April 2021 and March 2024., for a period of 28 days.
However, the prospects of Ryanair shares approaching 21 euros even in early 2024 seemed completely remote just a few weeks ago, but before the first of the pharmaceutical groups revealed the astonishing results of the phase 3 trials. for your possible Covid vaccines.
At the start of the crisis in March, Ryanair shares had plunged to just over 8 euros and had only recovered slightly to trade around 11.70 euros at the end of October, but apparently they had no chance of reaching the goal of 21 euros. price even in a few years.
Since then, its shares have risen to more than 15.40 euros to value the airline at more than 17.3 billion euros after Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna and AstraZeneca announced promising news for their vaccines on successive Mondays through November.
In response to the Covid crisis, Ryanair will cut completely or run a reduced schedule during the winter after Christmas in Dublin, Cork and Shannon, as well as at regional airports.
Along with other airlines, Ryanair had harshly criticized the Irish and European governments for their air travel restrictions and the financial bailout offered to some airlines during the Covid crisis.
O’Leary’s stock incentive was part of a new contract under which he agreed to stay with the airline until the summer of 2024.
The airline said at the time that the CEO had agreed to a 50% cut in his base salary to 500,000 euros, and a 50% cut from his maximum annual bonus to 500,000 euros.
Ryanair had also stressed that Mr O’Leary does not receive pension benefits.
In the midst of the Covid crisis, in March this year, it agreed to a new salary cut to 250,000 euros.
Shareholders only voted by a narrow margin to approve the incentive plan in 2019.
Vaccines have the potential to change the fortunes of European airlines.
On Sunday, it emerged that Britain had obtained 2 million doses of Moderna’s candidate vaccine, in addition to the 5 million doses it obtained from the American company.
The British government said it now has access to sufficient doses of Moderna’s candidate vaccine for around 3.5 million people, and overall has access to 357 million doses of vaccines from seven developers.
Britain also ordered 40 million doses of a vaccine developed by Germany’s BioNTech and America’s Pfizer.
The UK regulator is scheduled to approve the BioNTech-Pfizer vaccine this week, and deliveries will begin within hours of authorization, the Financial Times reported on Saturday.
Britain has also secured 100 million doses of the vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford and has targeted its launch to begin before Christmas.
AstraZeneca shares rose only slightly on Friday, but continued to trade below early November levels as questions arose about how it announced the results of its phase 3 test earlier in the week.
[ad_2]