Branson and Virgin Atlantic

Sky News reports that Virgin Atlantic is in talks with shareholders regarding a new capital injection of around £400m to take it through to next Spring.

At last week’s Airline 2021 conference Chief Executive Shai Weiss said that bookings until the end of the year were strong, but less so going into 2022

After its £1.2bn recapitalisation in September 2020, Virgin Atlantic took a further round of funding from shareholders and creditors in March 2021 of £160m.

Founded in 1984, Virgin Atlantic has never tried the initial public offering (IPO) route for funding and now is not the time for airlines to sell stock to the public. Virgin Group owns a 51% stake in the carrier, with the rest held by Delta Air Lines. Richard Branson sold another $300m worth of shares in New York-listed Virgin Galactic last week, taking the total he has raised in this manner during the pandemic to more than $1bn.

Sky News says that well-placed sources are saying that a decision on the fundraising, which would also include payment deferrals and other assistance from creditors, would be announced by the end of 2021.

Virgin Atlantic, which has almost halved its workforce since the start of the pandemic, lost more than £650m during 2020 and expects to sustain more losses in 2021.

www.virginatlantic.com

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