Administrators push for Virgin bailout

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With Virgin fast running out of cash, its administrator, Vaughan Strawbridge, has called for a government loan to fund the sale process:

Virgin, which is estimated to be burning through about $15 million a week, has about $100 million left in the bank.

Binding offers are due in less than four weeks, on June 12, and increasingly, parties expect the airline will need more cash to keep operating until the creditors’ meeting in August.

“[Deloitte administrator Vaughan] Strawbridge’s comments [about additional funding options] are widely seen as a pre-cursor to a government bailout,” a source said…

If granted, this loan – likely to be in the tens-of-millions – would pale into insignificance against the $1.4 billion demanded by Virgin and Labor in March, which would have been pissed up against the wall given Virgin owed 10,000 creditors a combined $6.8 billion.

If this loan can facilitate the emergence of a Virgin MkII airline that uses its existing staff and aircraft fleet, it would be taxpayer money well spent.

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About the author
Leith van Onselen is Chief Economist at the MB Fund and MB Super. He is also a co-founder of MacroBusiness. Leith has previously worked at the Australian Treasury, Victorian Treasury and Goldman Sachs.