Branson, Bain quibble over size of stake in Virgin Australia

The size of a stake in Virgin Australia Holdings has become a point of disagreement between new owner Bain Capital and Richard Branson’s Virgin Group, sources have told the Sydney Morning Herald. The certainty that the carrier will remain at Brisbane Int’l has been sealed, however, as the state of Queensland signed a deal with Bain to that effect. Virgin Group owned 10% of the Australian company when the coronavirus pandemic grounded the majority of the fleets of Virgin Australia, Virgin Australia International, Virgin Australia Regional, and now-retired brand Tigerair Australia. Since then it has said it wants to invest between AUD50-100 million Australian dollars (USD36-72 million) to retain a minority stake of about the same size. But Bain has offered a stake of only 5%, the source said. The Australian Financial Review first reported that Virgin Group would emerge with 5%, but according to the Sydney Morning Herald, Branson has been pushing for more. Simultaneously, Bain is reportedly negotiating a new licensing agreement to retain the Virgin brand but with a lower annual licence fee than the AUD15 million (USD10.7 million) it was paying before Virgin Australia Holdings entered voluntary administration on April 21, owing some AUD6.8 billion (USD4.9 billion) to creditors. Talks are nearing their conclusion, however, and are expected to wrap up by the end of October, the sources said, which is when Bain formally takes control of the company. Meanwhile, Bain has been working on separate negotiations with the Queensland government, which wants a small stake, likely to be about 2%, in exchange for its promised AUD200 million (USD143 million) in investment (consisting of working capital, financial incentives, subsidies, and an AUD20 million (USD14.3 million) equity investment) to keep Virgin Australia based in Brisbane.