Bain wins bid to get ailing Australian airline Virgin
27 June, 2020
Administrators for Virgin Australia said Friday that they had accepted a bid from U.S. private equity giant Bain Capital to get the pandemic-felled airline.
Officials at Deloitte said that they had reached a cope with the Boston-based fund that "will lead to the sale and recapitalization of Virgin Australia Holdings and its own subsidiary businesses".
The deal is at the mercy of regulatory approvals and is because of be completed by August.
The Richard Branson-backed airline has struggled for years against larger carrier Qantas, which would have enjoyed a virtual monopoly if Virgin went of business.
The terms of the offer were not spelled out completely, but Bain had focused on "the retention of thousands of jobs".
The airline was a lot more than A$5 billion (U.S.$3.2 billion) with debt and had appealed for a great A$1.4 billion loan to remain afloat, however the government refused to bail out the majority foreign-owned company.
"This is an essential milestone and a substantial achievement," said Joint Administrator Vaughan Strawbridge.
"Bain Capital possesses presented a solid and compelling bid for the business that will secure the continuing future of Australia's second airline, a large number of employees and their own families and be sure Australia continues to enjoy the benefits of a competitive aviation sector."
The Transport Workers Union said it had been "happy to work" with Bain "on the program for getting the airline back on its feet".
Australian airlines -- like their global peers -- have ceased the vast majority of businesses amid coronavirus-induced travel restrictions.
Australians returning to the united states face mandatory a 14-day quarantine and virtually all non-residents are actually barred, under measures that also find many Australian states effectively closed to domestic travel.
Virgin made around 1,000 staff redundant prior to the carrier went into voluntary administration in April while 8,000 others were furloughed, leaving just 1,000 still working.
Qantas this week announced it could be cutting 6,000 jobs and grounding 100 planes for up to a year since it aims for U.S.$10 billion in savings.
Bain had faced competition from Cyrus Capital Partners, who reportedly withdrew their bid early Friday.
Source: japantoday.com
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