V-Flyer

David wrote:Not looking good

https://news.sky.com/story/coronavirus- ... l-11983452

David

3,000 out of 8,500 is 35% of the workforce.

The article also suggests this will be the end of LGW ops with VS consolidating its presence to LHR and MAN (the seasonal flights from BFS and GLA aren't mentioned). What does that bode for the hangar at LGW and HQ still being in Crawley?

It also mentions withdrawal of the 747's. This was planned anyway, but could this mean it's being brought forward without waiting for the A350's?

Regardless, this isn't good but at the same time unsurprising. My thoughts are with all the staff potentially affected by this.

My thought here is that the Government were concerned that VS had 'no tried everything'. This shows that they are prepared to look at things different.

In my view, this had to happen before any Government help. If you get a bail out then announce redundancies, the press is bad. make the job cuts first then the Government come in and 'save' the remaining 5,500 jobs.

Smoke and mirrors, yes, but important non the less in the optics of fleet street.

https://www.ft.com/content/5c1b5276-3b5 ... 35297dc5f9

Branson clears path to sell $1bn stake in Virgin Galactic

VS has retained Alvarez & Marsal to draw up contingency plans for a pre-pack administration.

https://news.sky.com/story/coronavirus- ... s-11985678

Hmmm.. I wonder

Branson sells galactic stake

VA goes bust/prepack wipes out delta and branson

Branson buys new VA back at cents on the $

Branson buys new VA back at cents on the $

You could be right but there is a risk going down that route that a competitor with deep pockets or receiving state aid from their own government sees a value in making a counter offer to push the price up or actually grab the business ..... now that might not be IAG (BA, Aer Lingus etc) but could be the state aided AF/KLM or the state assisted Delta .... see below for quote on the pre-pack procedure. Note, of course, that if Virgin went down this route and in the process confiscated existing customers' accumulated miles and/or left them with their delayed refunds unpaid (forcing customers to go via credit card companies / banks to try and get redress) and/or invalidated the vouchers/future bookings that customers had made instead of a refund that would really dent the image of the brand (beyond the current, largely unjustified IMHO, personal antipathy towards RB for having the temerity to go from nothing to a (paper) billionaire).

Under insolvency practitioners guidelines, the insolvency practitioner must market the business. Often this requires sending sales memos to a database of potential buyers, placing an advert on their website and/or a local or national newspaper.

If they get no indication of interest, they can then sell to the 'new company' or third party. However, if there is interest and several offers, the business could fall into the hands of a competitor. You may be able to buy the business back, but the outcome is not under your control.

At this stage, the insolvency practitioner will have to get formal valuations of the assets, intellectual property and/or goodwill of the insolvent company by RICS qualified surveyors. Generally, any offer needs to be commensurate with such valuations.

They've at least ticked the box on offering it for sale now. Pre-packs are usually carefully done to achieve their objectives.

The miles are owned by a Virgin loyalty company rather than the airline itself. Could a pre-pack take on paid bookings? Essentially its what Branson would be paying for.

SRB is apparently preparing to sell a stake in Virgin Galactic in order to support the rest of the Virgin group, including Virgin Atlantic.

Link below, fair play if this comes to pass.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-52596273

More twists and turns ;

https://news.sky.com/story/coronavirus- ... t-11993843

I wonder what sort of timings we are looking at for all of this? I vaguely recall an article previously saying without help VS would run out of money by the end of June - essentially a month away. With the government outlining the 14-day quarantine from 8th June and current booking system showing paired-back passenger operations from 1st July (tentatively) I presume we will hear of some definitive action in the next few weeks? Definitive only by way of either securing funds from investors or an agreement with the government (seems unlikey) or something worse.

Nobody since yesterday can sign into Virgins website due to “technical issues”. Well I do hope it is indeed technical issues and nothing worse.

comedykev wrote:Nobody since yesterday can sign into Virgins website due to “technical issues”. Well I do hope it is indeed technical issues and nothing worse.

My wife and I still unable to login this monring. Assume they are doing some IT work this Bk Hol Weekend.

VS have stated via social media there is an ongoing issue with the Flying Club data base section of the website. You should now also get a holding page rather than just an error now:

We’re currently experiencing technical issues with some of our systems, and are aware our Flying Club website is currently unavailable. Our teams are working hard to rectify the issue, so we can get the site back up as soon as possible. We apologise to our members for any inconvenience caused.

mitchja wrote:VS have stated via social media there is an ongoing issue with the Flying Club data base section of the website. You should now also get a holding page rather than just an error now:

If your struggling with my details, I seem to recall I had 12,005,001 miles and 8500 tier points

David wrote:

mitchja wrote:VS have stated via social media there is an ongoing issue with the Flying Club data base section of the website. You should now also get a holding page rather than just an error now:

If your struggling with my details, I seem to recall I had 12,005,001 miles and 8500 tier points

Only 8500 TPs...? Slacker......

You can't login via the App either. I just checked again now and the status is still the same.

I wonder if its a cunning way of stopping people booking flights on points when they are needing revenue?

Bloomberg reporting VS have whittled the original 12 possible investors to 4 and giving themselves 3 weeks to secure a bailout. Also mentions that VS may go back to the Treasury to ask if Project Birch could be an option,

“Project Birch

If no offers of investment are forthcoming, Britain could alternatively provide a loan or take a direct stake in the airline, invoking the Project Birch rescue plan for strategically important companies unable to tap a Bank of England-administered fund because of their poor credit ratings, the person said.“

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles ... ew-funding

Let’s hope the funds come through and that the U.K. government do consider allowing a loan or backing one. They’ve had no issues squandering it on the work shy for decades . Too many other companies futures rely heavily on airlines such as VS.

VS will survive, what it looks like is a little uncertain and the owners remain unclear, but it will survive, I'm 100% sure of that.

VS have asked DL if they can defer $250m in Joint Venture fees as part of a 5 part rescue deal, the other elements are;

Selling a stake in VS
Agreeing a £150m top ranking loan
Persuading credit card companies to release tens of millions of pounds withheld for future customer bookings
A new attempt at securing a UK taxpayer loan (£500m rejected in April)

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/20 ... e-package/

So Bloomberg reporting VS has secured some private funding and has now gone back to the Treasury with a renewed plea to secure guarantees and a “revolving credit facility”

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles ... k-aid-plea

Sky reporting VS has concluded they won’t get any money from the Treasury and now focusing on securing private investment.

https://news.sky.com/story/coronavirus- ... s-12015887

flyingfox wrote:Sky reporting VS has concluded they won’t get any money from the Treasury and now focusing on securing private investment.

https://news.sky.com/story/coronavirus- ... s-12015887

Is it just me or does the article read a little more positive than the headline?

flyingfox wrote:Sky reporting VS has concluded they won’t get any money from the Treasury and now focusing on securing private investment.

https://news.sky.com/story/coronavirus- ... s-12015887

What is most interesting is that the article says that whatever the outcome of the deal, including £8-900m of investment, the Virgin Group will still keep 51%. Even if they put in around £200m themselves, it is hard to see how they could achieve this. If they can, then very clever.