Jim05 wrote:Q. wrote:Booney wrote:Virgin Australia asking the government for a $1.4bn loan to avoid going into administration.
Chinese Conglomerate HNA Group own 20% of Virgin Australia and have refused to provide any financial assistance despite asking for the $1.4Bil handout. Any taxpayer bailout ends up in their hands and the rest of the foreign owners.
Virgin Australia is owned by
Singapore Airlines 20%Etihad 20%
HNA Group 20%
Nanshan 20%
Richard Branson 10%
Public shares 10%
All the others apart from Branson have said no as they are dealing with their own debt issues.
They are a good airline and we need 2 airlines in this country as they employ 10,000 Australians and have many thousands who are indirectly employed with them. They are a vital piece of our tourism industry but unfortunately due to the last CEO being terrible they lost too much money. The new CEO is excellent and has only been in the job 12 months but had Virgin on the road to profitability before this pandemic broke out. I don’t agree with just giving them a hand out but would be happy if they were helped out some way. Going into voluntary administration might be the only way forward and that would atleast get rid of a couple of deadweight owners
This is actually a Singapore government sovereign wealth fund called Temasek Holdings.
The latest accounts of the Singapore Government’s Temasek Holdings show it has S$313bn (AUD$364bn) in total assets, which is 1,300 times its share of the $1.4bn sought by Virgin Australia, based on its stake in Virgin Australia. 36 percent of its assets are liquid, such as held in the form of cash or “cash equivalents”, representing A$131bn.
Our Government has the power, should they push a quick act through Parliament, to buy Virgin’s business on “just terms”. The whole lot - pilots, engineers, flight attendants, check-in staff, landing slots, terminals.