Virgin Australia administrator offers extra time to final bidders

The final deadline to pick the winner of the bid for the airline remains at June 30.

the final deadline to pick the winner of the bid for the airline, which went into administration on April 21 with debts of almost $7bn, will still remain at June 30. Picture: AFP

The final two bidders for Virgin Australia - Bain Capital and New York hedge fund Cyrus Capital Partners - have been given an extra 10 days to make their final bids for the airline.

But the final deadline to pick the winner of the bid for the airline, which went into administration on April 21 with debts of almost $7bn, will still remain at June 30.

Administrator for the airline, Deloitte’s Vaughan Strawbridge, is understood to have given the two short-listed bidders more time to finalise their binding bids which were originally due to be made on June 12.

The bidding process for Virgin was streamlined from four short-listed parties this week to two players who have begun serious talks with stakeholders such as unions, aircraft lease holders and state governments following the announcement of the final two short-list candidates on Tuesday.

BGH Capital and the $170bn Australian Super were the surprise drop outs from the final short list process this week after being considered as front runners earlier in the year.

Little is known of New York-based hedge fund Cyrus Capital which was the surprise short list candidate this week, edging out the BGH/Australian Super consortium.

Founded by New York-based Stephen Freidheim, Cyrus Capital has long standing ties with Richard Branson having been involved with the founding of Virgin America in 2007, a deal which proved to be highly profitable for both Branson and Cyrus after Virgin America was sold to Alaska Airways in 2016 for $US2.6bn.