Virgin Profit

[SKYMAN]

Well done Virgin Atlantic, £15.7 mil profit, not bad in these times if you not s no frills outfit. Bet SQ must be pleased as they get 49% of it and they need every bit at the moment.

[frangatang]

Does anyone believe half of what the bearded wonder says??

[4PON4PIN]

Frangatang... Oh ye of little faith and posts.. do you think it was £31.4m then!? Whooppee-bleedin-Dooo:p

[millerscourt]

SKYMAN 49% of 15.7 Million = 7.7 Million

Marvellous return on an investment of £650 Million after how many years now since SQ threw all this monet at Virgin????

The CEO of the day at SQ resposible for that has just retired from SQ and is now a Director of a Bank in Singapore!!!! Would you believe it!!!!! This sort of thing could only happen in a place such as Singapore as it would be losing face to admit an almighty cock up. Others in Government majority holdings such as SinTel and DBS Bank and Temasek Holdings would have their equally dismal records examined as well and so the pack of cards would collapse.

Whoops Before the smart axxes come out I have just made two spelling errors through not reading my type.

[SKYMAN]

millerscourt - I don't disagree with you, VS did very well out of the deal and SQ paid a big amount to much for them, but VS did well to get it.

But would SQ want to get out of the deal? What amount would they take, as no way would they get even half the amount they paid.

But my main point is VS made money (ok not lots really) and it is nice to see airlines make money and I hope that the day will come when the industry we work in and love (most of the time) rides high again.

[Dick Fisher]

Greater minds than mine will know what Singapore Airlines got (or were promised) when they took half of Virgin Atlantic, but I couldn't and cannot see the benefit for the life of me.

I do acknowledge however, that "the bearded wonder" seems to have an uncanny ability to sell either all or part of what he owns for great globs of cash just when his group needs it the most.

Read the unauthorised boigraphy by Tom Bowers (I think) for a fuller picture.

[millerscourt]

SKYMAN Yes as you say well done VS. RB got one well and truly over SIA.

Dick Fisher As Skyman said if SIA tried to sell their 49% holding in VS they would get very little compared to what they paid.

The reason SIA invested in Virgin and AirNZ (where they wrote off $300 Million, yet another gigantic cock up by the late CEO was because at the time they had a cash mountain of $2 Billion and rather than spend some of it on getting Pilots who at the time were reluctant to join SIA ( what a change now!!) and as a result Pilots were owed in some cases 3 years Back leave!!! our late beloved leader who was the complete opposite to the 'Bearded One' but who met him quite often at the various trade do's where SIA and VS got best this and that categories and I think that our late CEO saw the razmatazz that followed RB and the girlies etc etc and he just wanted a part of this cos if you had ever seen this SIA CEO you would realise what I mean. He was just wanting to enter a different world to that what he was used to and got carried away and in the heat of the moment when the Bearded One over dinner thrust a bit of paper across the dining room table,this being the price he wanted for 49% of VS he snatched it from him and agreed to it!!!

The rest is history and the rest of SIA staff have been made to pay the price of this man's ineptitude and stupidity.

[stormin norman]

Now that RB is flush with money would he like to divert some to the dreadful railway system he runs. First Class food London-Manchester 1 soggy samosa and some sarnies from the local
takeaway.oh yes, and a 2 hour delay to boot .
Iv'e also read Tom Blowers book,great read but uncontested by
RB i wonder why ?

[Mashie Niblick]

At the risk of "stating the obvious",Mr Branson did not take any action over said book because of one reason.I have a friend who works very closely with RB who told me that his initial reaction was to "Take Bowyer to the cleaners" for defamation,slander etc,etc.However,after carefull consultation with "legal eagles",it was decided that only a relatively small minority of the book buying public(with any interest in aviation, or him) would buy it.......perhaps 5 million or so.If it went to court,with mass media publicity,and we all know that Branson is less than keen on any negative publicity toward him or his empire,then book sales may have quadrupled or more,as people want to know what the "fuss" is about .
The peoples' champion,or "Peoples'Chumpion" as I like to call him,does not want the general public to think of him as anything other than a hero with the interests of the public at his very core !
I lost ANY respect,that I had ,for him,when I saw him almost in tears over the "loss" of his bid to run the National Lottery."Peoples' Lottery"......every thing going to charity........My Ar*e!!! At no point had he declared what his "running costs" were to be.IT WAS TO BE A CASH COW....and nothing less!!
I think Camelot are fairly corrupt,but nothing compared to what Branson would have been.

DAMAGE LIMITATION is his reason for keeping quiet over the book.
I personally recommend it to anyone interested!!

[Kelas]

Let's face it...RB is truly a master of marketing. Anyone who can sell 49% of Virgin Travel Group at the inflated price of £ 650 million knows how to sell ice to the Eskimos. The true losers are SQ and their management team who thought that they were getting a good deal! That being said, VS have posted a profit and in light of the current industry climate that is nothing to be sniffed at!

[farefield]

VS also made £100 million in the financial year before September 11th which for SQ was an 8% dividend on their investment.I don't want to make this an RB discussion but for the good people who work for VS I say well done. :ok:

[millerscourt]

Fairfield Yes Well done those at VS for their hard work to produce Pre tax profit of £15.7 Million for year Apr 2003.

The profit of £100Million you mention when SIA bought into VS is offset by the £92.6 Million Loss to Apr 2002.

Also as I recall when SIA were buying into VS as soon as RB had got his sticky hands on the money VS announced that due to high fuel costs profits for the next year would be far less than the £100 Million of the previous year!! Indeed they were so SIA were well and truly taken for a ride. Well done RB.

Also don't forget sometime later a further £25 Million had to be put into prop up VS and presumably 49% was put in by SIA.

Also RB setting up Virgin Blue in OZ well and truly finished off SIA's investment hopes in AirNZ/Ansett where they wrote off $300Million.

I guess RB is no longer the flavour of the month in SIA circles!!!

[SKYMAN]

Mashie Niblick - I think your 100% on the nail with regard to why RB did not sue over the book, in the big sense of things not many would have read it.

Think you are being a bit hard on him over the lottery, if he did get it, the press and the govt would have been watching (auditing) him so closely he could not have made it a cash cow for the Virgin Group. However I guess if it had been done well and as planned it would have been great PR for his group of company's and that was what he was after.

Mind you I hear buying a ticket on Virgin trains is a bit of a lottery anyway!

[crewrest]

Click Here (http://www.reuters.co.uk/newsPackageArticle.jhtml?type=businessNews&storyID=355868&section=finance)