the times | Wednesday February 16 2022 41
Business
Thousands of Airbus workers have
voted to strike over an “unacceptably
low” pay offer that they say does not
reflect rising living costs.
Strikes at the aerospace group’s sites
in Broughton, north Wales, and Filton,
near Bristol, which design, test and
manufacture wings for the company’s
commercial aircraft, could begin in
March if the dispute is not resolved.
About 3,000 Airbus employees who
are members of the Unite union voted
in favour of strike action yesterday after
the company refused to improve an un-
disclosed pay offer.
Pay was frozen in 2020, when Airbus
suffered a €1.1 billion loss and
announced 1,700 job cuts in Britain
amid a pandemic-induced recession in
commercial aviation, during which Air-
bus all but stopped producing aircraft.
British Airbus workers vote to strike
after ‘unacceptably low’ pay offer
Louisa Clarence-Smith More than half of Broughton’s 6,000
workers were temporarily furloughed
and staff agreed to take pay cuts to try
to prevent compulsory redundancies.
The group employs 130,000 people
worldwide, 12,500 of them in Britain.
Tens of thousands more work in its sup-
ply chain. Its space and satellite division
is a big employer in Stevenage, Hert-
fordshire.
Sharon Graham, general secretary of
Unite, called on Airbus to “table a
sensible offer, one that amply reflects
rising living costs, before this dispute
escalates further. The deal simply does
not reflect our members’ hard work and
dedication, nor the sacrifices they have
made over the last two years. There is
no excuse — Airbus can well afford to
pay its workers the decent rise they
deserve and it should move to do so
without delay.”
On a ballot with an 84 per cent turn-
out, 94 per cent of Unite Airbus mem-
bers voted for strike action.
Airbus warned that the decision to
strike would have a “damaging impact”
on the company’s recovery from the
pandemic, “the worst crisis the aviation
industry has ever faced”.
A spokesman said: “Airbus in the UK
managed to successfully navigate the
first waves of the pandemic without the
need for any compulsory redundancies
at a cost of more than £100 million and
we made our pay offer in the context of
the pandemic’s impact on our business
and the wider benefits structure em-
ployees receive.” It was “committed to
dialogues with the trade union to help
bring this situation to a successful re-
solution”. He said that details of the pay
offer were confidential while negotia-
tions continued.
“The safety of our people and
products is paramount and we will nowimplement plans to ensure the protec-
tion of our operations is maintained
going forward,” the spokesman added.
The row comes as Airbus is em-
broiled in a legal despite with Qatar
Airways. The airline has sued Airbus
for $618 million in compensation for
alleged damage to the surface of 21 Air-
bus A350 jets. Qatar Airways said that
it had “serious and legitimate safety
concerns” and listed problems includ-
ing peeling paintwork and cracked
window frames.
Airbus said that it disputed Qatar
Airways’ claims in full and would “de-
fend its product vigorously”. It said that
it had identified the root cause of the
issue and added that it did not amount
to a safety problem.
“The airworthiness of the aircraft is
not affected and the issues do not give
any valid basis for the grounding of
aircraft,” a spokesman said.A defiant John Menzies yesterday re-
iterated its stance that a £469 million
takeover proposal undervalues the
aviation services provider.
Shares in the company rose further
after it again rebuffed National Avia-
tion Services, a Kuwait-based rival that
argues its 510p-per-share bid would
create an enlarged group with greater
geographic scale. Menzies is adamant
that the potential deal is highly oppor-
tunistic.
The Edinburgh-based Menzies
John Menzies holds the line against rival’s bid
provides refuelling, de-icing, ground
handling and cargo services at more
than 200 airports around the world. Its
passenger-related activity fell sharply
during the pandemic, but cargo
volumes have been resilient. Analysts
expect it to announce revenue of about
£950 million for 2021 when it publishes
annual results next month.
National Aviation Services, a subsidi-
ary of Agility Public Warehousing, has
aviation services operations at more
than 50 airports in the Middle East,
Africa and South Asia. On Monday, it
repeated its assertion that Menziesshareholders should consider its all-
cash proposal. It has not yet made any
moves to increase its offer, but is under-
stood to be keen to engage with
Menzies. No institutional shareholders
have come out in support of it.
Yesterday Menzies, whose board has
unanimously rejected its suitor’s ap-
proach, said that it had been talking to
shareholders since the bid last week
and restated that the price failed to take
into account the re-shaping of the busi-
ness in recent years.
It also pointed to contract opportuni-
ties that could be worth up to £280 mil-lion of annual revenue, along with an
post-pandemic upturn in the sector.
The company said its portfolio mix,
positioning and strategy would “create
significant value for shareholders in the
near and medium term”.
Sterling Strategic Value Fund, the
largest investor with almost 7 per cent,
and Mithaq, with 6.63 per cent, have
come out in support of the board, as has
SVM Asset Management, the Edin-
burgh fund manager with 1.7 per cent.
Menzies shares stood at 335p before
news of the takeover. Yesterday they
closed up 12p, or 2.6 per cent, at 477p.Greig Cameron
MySale rues
delays in its
supply chain
Shayma BakhtDemand subdued by the Omicron
coronavirus variant and delays in stock
deliveries in the run-up to Christmas
have hit half-year revenues at MySale
and yesterday sent shares in the Austra-
lian online fashion retailer backed by
Sir Philip Green sharply into the red.
The Aim-listed MySale said that it
was taking a cautious approach to its
full-year outlook, after a trading update
for the six months to the end of
December revealed a 6 per cent decline
in total revenue from A$63.8 million
(£33.7 million) last year to A$59.7 mil-
lion. That prompted a 34.5 per cent, or
1¼p, fall in the share price to 2¼p.
MySale is a “flash sale” site, selling
branded fashion, homewares and
beauty products, typically in limited
quantities and over short time periods.
It was launched in Sydney in 2007 and
is backed by Shelton Capital, Green’s
family investment vehicle, which owns
about a fifth of the company.
It made the decision to invest in more
own-label items, but weak demand and
delivery problems left it sitting on stock
worth about A$6.1 million by the end of
the Christmas period. MySale said that
it was monitoring its position and was
considering options to manage its
working capital position. It noted that it
was debt-free.
While MySale’s gross profit of
A$24.9 million in the six-month period
was up slightly from the $24.1 million
recorded a year earlier, the company
said that supply chain volatility in the
second quarter had affected its broader
profitability, with pre-tax earnings of
only A$1 million, down from A$2.5 mil-
lion in the same period last year.ROYAL AUSTRALIAN NAVYB
abcock
International
is broadening
its horizons
and taking
control of its joint
venture to look after
warships down under
(Robert Lea writes).
The Royal Navy
engineer has spent
£32 million to buy out
the 50 per cent of
Australia’s outsourced
Naval Ship Management
business that it does not
own from Cimic, a
Sydney-based
conglomerate. Cimic
used to be called
Leighton; it inherited its
stake in the Australian
warship support
business from an
acquisition in 2016.
Babcock has been a
co-owner of Naval Ship
Management since 2012
and yesterday’s deal
means it has a larger
role in an agreement
with BAE Systems to
keep afloat the
Australian navy’s eight
Anzac class frigates, plus
New Zealand’s twofrigates. It also has
responsibility for the
Australian navy’s two
Canberra class
helicopter carriers and
dozen landing craft.
The deal comes amida flurry of sales of assets
and holdings that are
raising £400 million at
Babcock by David
Lockwood, 59, the chief
executive who was
brought in 18 monthsago to shake up a
business that had been
hobbled by questionable
accounting practices
and negative investor
sentiment and which
saw it led to it falling outof the FTSE 100 amid
sharp falls in its share
price.
In Britain it is one of
the biggest contractors
to the Ministry of
Defence, buildingwarships in Rosyth,
Scotland, and managing
the Royal Naval
dockyard at Devonport.
It is valued on the stock
market at £1.5 billion.
The business wasincorporated in 1891 and
today employs about
30,000 people
worldwide.
It is hoping to
geographically diversify
its defence interests. At
presewnt Australia
accounts for 6 per cent
of Babcock’s annual
revenues of £4 billion
and the company is
hoping to increase its
work for the Australian
military. The Australian
warships deal will bring
in annual revenue of
£135 million.
Robert Plant, an
analyst at Panmure
Gordon, the broker, said
the deal indicated that
Lockwood felt Babcock’s
finances were secure
again.
“Babcock is telling us
it can acquire as well as
sell,” Stephen
Rawlinson, an
independent sector
analyst, said. “This is a
statement of intent that
it wants to grow the
business in an area of
core work.”
Shares in Babcock
closed up by 7½p, or
2.5 er cent, at 308½p.Babcock
strengthens
arsenal in
Australia
Stuart and Toowoomba,
two Anzac class frigates,
are among Australian
naval vessels that are
maintained by Babcock
International