Virgin Australia receives final offers from two bidders

Airline carrier Virgin Australia Holdings has reportedly received final bids from its bidding companies Bain Capital and Cyrus Capital Partners.

The distressed carrier is the second-biggest airline in Australia.

In April, the company entered voluntary administration seeking bankruptcy protection amid the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic with the aim of recapitalising the business.

Deloitte administrator Vaughan Strawbridge was reported by Reuters as saying that both the bidders have ‘proposed to operate the airline as a smaller, single-branded domestic and short-haul international carrier with growth potential’.

The news agency’s report further cited a Cyrus spokesman as saying that the firm has decided not to change the airline’s Brisbane headquarters and support the current management team.

The report also added that the airline’s ‘bondholders were working on a debt-to-equity swap’. It owes about A$2bn ($1.37bn) collectively to 6,500 unsecured bondholders.

The two bids have already secured approval from Australia’s Foreign Investment Review Board. Further details of the bids remain undisclosed.

A decision on the preferred bidder is expected to be taken by 30 June.

Deloitte was quoted by The Guardian as saying: “On the basis of their public statements, both bidders are committed to seeing a strong, competitive and sustainable Virgin Australia operating into the future, employing many thousands of Australians, and supporting the tourism industry and state and national economies.”