Virgin’s shortlist down to 4

FOUR private equity firms are the leading candidates to buy Virgin Australia, the biggest regional casualty of the coronavirus crisis in the global aviation industry.

Melbourne-based BGH Capital and American private equity firms Bain Capital, Indigo Partners and Cyrus Capital Partners made the shortlist from bids submitted last week, a source said.

Administrators Deloitte have not named the parties but said yesterday they had shortlisted “a small number of wellfunded parties with strong aviation credentials” who were invited to the next stage of the sale process.

Phoenix-based Indigo Partners owns US airline Frontier Airlines and Chilean carrier JetSmart, while New York and London-based Cyrus Capital Partners was recently involved in collapsed British regional airline Flybe.

BGH, a private equity firm founded in 2017, also yesterday entered into exclusive talks to acquire theme park and cinema owner Village Roadshow.

Tentative offers were due on Friday and Deloitte Restructuring Services partner Vaughan Strawbridge said they had received more interest than anticipated. He said the decision was “predicated on the business continuing and achieving the best outcome for all people impacted”.

The high-level interest in Virgin Australia at a time when the world aviation market is largely grounded shows the long-time attractiveness of the Australian domestic market, a duopoly between Qantas Airways and Virgin.

Virgin Australia, the country’s second-biggest airline, entered voluntary administration in April, owing creditors nearly $7 billion.

AAP, with REUTERS