Originally Posted by
Chippybus
Any profits are taken 'Offshore" and redistributed to shareholders, VA would never ever seemingly make a profit, it gave them the narrative to tell the staff about how hard it was and how they couldn't afford pay rises etc. How can a company 30 years old only make a profit once or twice in that long period? They carried the bare minimum in cash as the rest was siphoned off to launch rockets and ships. The only time VA made a significant profit was the year SA bought its 49% (total madness to buy 49% of anything) SRB is a gambler always was and always will be, he has suffered a traumatic period in the casino and will be asked to leave shortly his cash has run out. His whole world will fall like a house of cards, he burns through cash quicker than my wife and now his business style of living on the edge and constantly spending is coming to haunt him.
There's a long-standing view that very few of his businesses are actually profitable. Branson's modus operandi was to set something up with much hoopla, run it for a year or two then offload it and retain a minority stake and a payment for use of the Virgin brand. I recall he took his company (VGHL?) private in order to avoid any scrutiny by shareholders etc.
I think SIA dodged a bullet flogging its stake to Delta.