All the businesses seek to offer consumers more flexible cheaper deals. For instance, easyPizza will deliver food for as little as £1, if customers are willing to take the pizza in the middle of the afternoon.. The shares yesterday closed down 7p at 248p.Mr Haji-Ioannou, the son of a Greek shipping magnate, said: “As I have been consistently saying for a while, from time to time, I will be selling a bit of my past to finance my future. The airline announced yesterday that Mr Haji-Ioannou, who is no longer on the board, had sold 8 million shares last week.

It fell into difficulty in the early 1990s and had to be bailed out by a group of banks. In 1995 it was sold to a consortium led by Mr Reichmann and including the Saudi Prince Al Waleed bin Talal.It floated on the stock market in 1998.. Stelios Haji-Ioannou, the entrepreneur behind easyJet, has sold more of his holding in the no-frills airline, pocketing around £20m, to fund new ventures. “There’s been no pick-up in demand at Canary Wharf,” he said, referring to an increase in unlet space as a result of the downturn in investment banking.Canary Wharf was originally developed by Reichmann’s Olympia & York. Mr Reichmann also holds a 7.7 per cent in the group.Alan Patterson, a property analyst at HSBC, said Mr Reichmann was “trying to talk up the possibility of a bid.

If an offer doesn’t come in around 310p he might make one himself.”However, Jeremy Anagnos at Deutsche Bank, said he felt there was a risk that interested parties might pull out. However, a consortium which involved some of the world’s most powerful investment banks together with the company’s founder and chairman would be hard to beat. Mr Reichmann has indicated to the board that he may consider forming a consortium to make an offer for the company depending on the outcome of these discussions and the terms of any offers for the company.”The bidders Mr Reichmann could team up with are Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and Brascan, a Canadian company which has built up a 9 per cent stake in Canary Wharf.It is thought Mr Reichmann could offer up to 310p per share, which would value Canary Wharf at £1.8bn.Lazards has set this Thursday as a “deadline” for initial expressions of interest though it is thought this is more of a milestone in the process rather than a formal cut-off date.No formal offers have yet been received. It came following pressure from the Takeover Panel after Canary Wharf shares rose 5 per cent to 265p yesterday in the wake of weekend speculation that the Canadian property guru might launch a bid.A statement issued on his behalf said: “With the consent of the board of the company, Mr Reichmann is discussing his possible involvement with third party potential offerors. Paul Reichmann confirmed last night that he is considering forming a consortium to bid for Canary Wharf, the property company that has transformed London’s skyline with its Docklands office developments. Analysts cast doubt on whether CI Traders was in with a chance, highlighting the group’s lack of stockmarket exposure and trading experience on the UK mainland, where it recently sold a clutch of pubs.”CI Traders …clearly understands its consumers in the Channel Islands but I would be cautions about it making an acquisition on the mainland,” one leisure analyst said..