Instead America is setting up new, probably permanent, bases in what it intends to be a friendly, secular and democratic Iraq next door.Its regional command headquarters has already been moved from Saudi Arabia to Qatar. The shifts have the extra advantage of bringing US strike-power closer to the borders of Iran, to discourage Tehran from meddling in Iraq and from pursuing its suspected nuclear weapons programme.Now that the need to keep Saddam Hussein “in his box” has disappeared, Washington is also scaling back its presence at the Incirlik air base in southeastern Turkey.Economic and military factors have weighed, as well as the desire, many suspect, to punish Turkey for its refusal to sanction the launch of a northern front against Baghdad.So America is quietly strengthening its foothold in countries such as Uzbekistan and Kyrgystan, closer to Afghanistan, a likely flashpoint on the great “arc of instability” across the Arab and Islamic world that will last many years. It may later scale back its presence of more than 40,000 troops in Japan.The changes in the field are being accompanied by a personnel shake-up at the Pentagon. Mr Rumsfeld has taken particular aim at the US army, the service he regards as especially wedded to what the former Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev used to call “the old thinking”.. Shire Pharmaceuticals yesterday became the latest company heading for a showdown with shareholders over controversial “golden goodbye” clauses it has included in directors’ contracts.
It is still negotiating the pay package of its American chief executive, but that too could contain a potential two-year pay-off.The NAPF frowns on such contracts because they can reward directors for failure. It is pushing for an against vote rather than just an abstention because the “change of control provision has only recently been included”.Shire is also set to be targeted over the £4.3m pension top-up it granted its former chief executive, Rolf Stahel. Mr Stahel, who built Shire up into one of the world’s leading drugs groups, left the company last year after a boardroom bust up, taking with him a total pay-off of £5.9m.Pirc, the shareholder activist group, condemned the additional pension contribution. “Pirc considers that effectively amending a chief executive’s terms and conditions on departure, to his benefit and without shareholder approval, is inappropriate,” the body said.Shire is unlikely to encounter serious opposition because 45 per cent of its shareholders are American, where pay levels are still a large multiple of their UK equivalents and directors are used to having a range of benefits in their contracts as a matter of course.A spokesperson for Shire said: “We operate in the global pharmaceuticals industry and have to be in the US, where change of control provisions are pretty much expected.”The company said that in the event of a takeover, its directors would receive only two years’ salary and bonus.
Other benefits and pensions are not included in the severance contract.Tesco, the UK supermarket group, is also heading for a row with its shareholders over the issue of two-year contracts at its shareholders’ meeting on Friday.. Shares in easyJet shot up 23 per cent yesterday after the no-frills airline reported a 20 per cent rise in passenger numbers in May and pointed to a recovery in demand. Ray Webster, easyJet’s chief executive, said: “The market softness that we witnessed earlier in the year due to the effects of the Gulf conflict is now dissipating and we have seen a strong recovery.”
Shares in easyJet shot up 23 per cent yesterday after the no-frills airline reported a 20 per cent rise in passenger numbers in May and pointed to a recovery in demand. The stock closed up 38p at 201p.EasyJet’s May figures were seized on by Ryanair, which carried 1.828 million passengers in the same month, as proof that the Irish carrier was once again Europe’s biggest no-frills airline.EasyJet also reported an improvement in its load factor – or the proportion of seats filled – to 83.5 per cent, up from 81.6 per cent a year before.The recovery in easyJet’s share price follows a slump earlier this week after Ryanair warned profit margins would fall as it stepped up a price war with rivals.
In an attempt to win more customers, it announced plans to cut its average fares by about 10 per cent, meaning average ticket prices will fall to around €40-€42.EasyJet was yesterday playing down the move, saying it would not necessarily hurt it as it competed more with the larger carriers such as British Airways.EasyJet also said yesterday that revenue per flight during May tracked at close to the same level as last year. Ryanair reported a 15 per cent fall for the same month.In the 12 months to 31 May, EasyJet carried 18.1 million passengers with a load factor of 83.8 per cent.. The bus and train operator Stagecoach yesterday agreed to sell off another chunk of its Coach USA business for $155m (£93.4m) as part of a restructuring designed to cut debt. The balance is being settled with a loan.The deal, which is still subject to regulatory clearance, will boost to £140m the proceeds that Stagecoach has so far got from selling off parts of Coach USA – a company it bought in 1999 for £1.2bn.The sale of Coach USA’s South Central and West Regions, along with three other previously announced disposals, means Stagecoach has completed about two-thirds of the disposal programme The stock closed up 2.5p at 59.5p last night.