Virgin Australia

The Virgin Australia saga appears to be moving towards a conclusion.

There are two suitors left, selected by the administrator Deloitte, Bain Capital, an American private equity firm and the Richard Branson-linked rival bidder Cyrus Capital.

They now have until 22 June to make binding offers for the airline which collapsed in April owing $6.8bn.

Deloitte moved back the deadline for final bids by 10 days to give suitors more time to work on their offers, sources close to the process said.   However, it still hopes to have a deal signed by the end of this month and presented to creditors in mid-August.

There are concerns that whoever wins the airline could sell it on, known as “flipping” to a third party.  The government seems relaxed over this strategy.

Union sources said they still knew little about how many aircraft and workers Virgin would have under Bain's ownership and would push for that information in meetings over the coming weeks.  Cyrus is also yet to outline its exact plans for Virgin.

At the present time Virgin Australia’s 76 domestic return flights per week are underwritten by the Federal  Government to connect essential travellers and critical freight with towns and cities across Australia.

www.btnews.co.uk

www.virginaustralia.com/au/en

Index/Home page
 

OUR READERS' FINEST WORDS (All times and dates are GMT)

All comments are filtered to exclude any excesses but the Editor does not have to agree with what is being said. 100 words maximum