Street Talk

Virgin to raise $685m as Bain signs off on airline’s ASX re-listing

Brokers are offering shares at $2.90 each, a discount to what rival Qantas trades at. Demand from fund managers, they say, has been running hot.

Sarah Thompson, Kanika Sood and Emma Rapaport

Updated Jun 4, 2025 – 8.40am, first published at 7.50am

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Virgin Australia’s much-anticipated return to the ASX is officially on its way with a $685 million raising that will reduce Bain Capital’s stake in the airline to 40 per cent.

The float has been on-again and off-again for two years but kicked into gear recently after Bain sold a big stake to strategic partner Qatar Airways and appointed a new chief executive, former Bain consultant Dave Emerson.

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.

Kanika Sood is a journalist based in Sydney who writes for the Street Talk column.

Emma Rapaport is a co-editor of the Street Talk column. Prior to that, she was a markets reporter at The Australian Financial Review.