Virgin Galactic posts $73M loss in first public results

6.4%

hong kong — Billionaire Richard Branson’s space tourism company, Virgin Galactic Holdings, said its fourth-quarter net loss widened to $73 million from a year-ago loss of $46 million as it reported its first results as a publicly-traded company.

The quarterly results, which include one-time transaction and other related costs, come as the company is aiming for a first commercial flight later this year with Branson on board.

“It will be a transformative moment for the company,” chief executive George Whitesides told analysts on a conference call, adding that revenue and cash flow will ramp up in 2021.

Shares of Virgin Galactic were volatile in after-hours trading and were last down 6.4 per cent. Shares had rallied in recent days, driven by investor interest in the first space tourism company to hit public markets.

Virgin Galactic competes with billionaire-backed ventures such as Blue Origin, founded by Amazon.com CEO Jeff Bezos, to be the first to offer suborbital flights to fare-paying thrill-seekers, presaging a new era of civilian space travel that could kick off as soon as this year.

Drop in Virgin Galactic’s shares after results

Virgin Australia to cut capacity

Meanwhile, Virgin Australia said on Wednesday that it would reduce capacity, leading to the removal of seven planes from its fleet and possible pilot redundancies, and cautioned its bottom line would take a hit as the coronavirus outbreak erodes demand.

The bleak outlook comes as

Australia’s second-biggest airline reported a 78 per cent plunge in underlying pre-tax profit for the six months ended December.

The closely-watched measure fell to A$24.5 million ($16 million) after adjusting for accounting changes due to higher fuel, airport, aircraft and staff costs.

On a bottom-line basis, Virgin Australia Holdings posted a firsthalf loss of A$88.6 million and said the coronavirus situation was likely to knock A$50-A$75 million off its earnings in the second half. —