Final two Virgin Australia bidders revealed
Administrators have announced which two global bidders will now go head to head for control of Virgin Australia.
QLD Business
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ADMINISTRATORS have named Bain Capital and Cyrus Capital Partners as the strongest bidders left in the race to buy Virgin Australia.
The two bidders will have until June 12 to lodge binding bids for the airline, which went into administration on April 21 with debts of almost $7 billion.
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The decision was made after the final four bidders all put in more detailed proposals on Friday and engaged in lengthy talks with Virgin administrator Deloitte over the weekend, on Monday and today.
Discussions covering issues including the bid price, plans for Virgin’s 10,000 staff and other issues such as how much cash upfront they were prepared to pay were key.
Bain Capital is being advised by former Jetstar chief executive Jayne Hrdlicka.
The group launched a major public relations exercise for its bid last week, with interviews with Bain’s Sydney based managing director Mike Murphy who declared that Bain’s goal was to “make flying fun again ”.
New York based Cyrus Capital was involved with the launch of Virgin America with Richard Branson.
Deloitte administrator Vaughan Strawbridge said both Bain Capital and Cyrus Capital Partners were well-funded, had deep aviation experience, and “see real value in the business and its future.”
“We will now spend the coming weeks facilitating in-depth bidder engagement with the stakeholders of the business and work closely with both preferred bidders in the lead up to binding final offers being received,” said Mr Strawbridge.
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