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How Bain Capital played Hrd ball to secure Virgin

It was a classic bait and switch. Bain Capital used Paul Scurrah, a straight-talking Queenslander, to get its deal to buy Virgin across the line. He thought his job was safe until he was replaced Jayne Hrdlicka.

Anthony Macdonald and Sarah Thompson

Updated Dec 23, 2020 – 11.25am, first published at 7.46am

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“Virgin has a great management team led by Paul Scurrah,” Bain Capital's Mike Murphy told the airline's 9000 staff on August 24.

“And I would like to again reaffirm we are backing Paul to successfully lead Virgin through the current turbulence and back into the skies."

Anthony Macdonald is a Chanticleer columnist. He is a former Street Talk co-editor and has 10 years' experience as a business journalist and worked at PwC, auditing and advising financial services companies.

Sarah Thompson has co-edited Street Talk since 2009, specialising in private equity, investment banking, M&A and equity capital markets stories. Prior to that, she spent 10 years in London as a markets and M&A reporter at Bloomberg and Dow Jones.