Virgin Australia executives set to meet investors ahead of re-listing, says source

By Scott Murdoch

(Reuters) -Virgin Australia executives will begin meeting with prospective investors on Tuesday ahead of a potential relisting of the Bain Capital-owned airline, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Australia's second-largest airline which competes with larger Qantas in the domestic aviation market, collapsed in 2020 following tough COVID-19 restrictions that damaged the global airline industry. Virgin executives plan to meet prospective investors on Tuesday to pitch the company's surge in profitability, the person added.The person could not be named as they were not authorised to comment to the media. Virgin referred a Reuters request for comment to Bain, which declined to comment. Bain bought out Virgin for about A$3.5 billion ($2.20 billion) after the airline called in external administrators, an Australian equivalent of bankruptcy protection, in the early months of the pandemic when abrupt flight cancellations hurt its ability to service debts.

As the end of most pandemic restrictions prompted a surge of demand for travel in 2022, Bain began exploring a possible Initial Public Offer, but the private equity firm paused preparations for a listing in 2023 due to volatile equity markets, a person familiar with the matter said at the time.

On Tuesday, Virgin Chief Executive Dave Emerson, who started in the job this month, will begin a non-deal roadshow to discuss the company's prospects with fund managers, the person with knowledge of the situation told Reuters.

($1 = 1.5896 Australian dollars)

(Reporting by Scott Murdoch in Sydney and Shivangi Lahiri in Bengaluru; Writing by Byron Kaye; Editing by Aurora Ellis and Stephen Coates)