BUSINESS NEWS


Richard Branson could raise $500 million by selling part of his stake in Virgin Galactic ‘to support the group’s leisure, holiday and travel businesses’


Virgin offers stakes in Galactic to save Atlantic


Virgin Group takes desperate measures to fund its UK airline. Ian Taylor reports


Virgin Atlantic’s survival will depend on the rapid completion of financial deals, with the carrier in talks with a dozen investors this week and Richard Branson’s Virgin Group offering part of US space tourism business Virgin Galactic for sale. Virgin announced it would sell


up to 25 million shares in Virgin Galactic on Monday in an effort to raise $500 million to prop up group companies including Virgin Atlantic. It was revealed late last week that


Virgin had cleared the way to sell up to half of Branson’s holding in Virgin


32 14 MAY 2020


Galactic, valued at about $2 billion. Virgin Atlantic has reportedly


also placed restructuring firm Alvarez & Marsal on standby to prepare for potential insolvency, including a possible pre-pack administration which would see the airline’s assets sold before the appointment of an administrator. However, the carrier would not confirm this. In a statement on Monday, Virgin


Group confirmed it intends to use the proceeds of a Galactic sale “to support its leisure, holiday and travel businesses”. Virgin Atlantic is also pursuing


private investment in a move likely to travelweekly.co.uk


cut Branson’s 51% stake in the carrier. Delta Air Lines owns the other 49%. Airline executives were to present


to 12 potential investors this week, mainly private equity and hedge funds, including Greybull Capital which put Monarch Airlines into administration in 2017. The airline has denied it needs


a deal by the end of this month to survive, but confirmed it had hired investment bank Houlihan Lokey to examine its options.


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