"Three frontrunners have emerged in the race to buy Virgin Australia.
Before Friday’s deadline for non-binding initial offers, investment firms Brookfield, BGH Capital and Bain Capital have emerged as the favourite parties to lead consortiums that buy the beleaguered airline.
The
Australian Financial Review said there was an outside chance that iron ore magnate Andrew ‘Twiggy’ Forrest, or the state governments of Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland could lead a potential fourth group of bidders.
And the Queensland government has since
announced plans to bid for the airline, with new state Treasurer Cameron Dick describing the government as “a serious contender” that had made good progress in discussions with the administrators.
Sources close to the bidding process told the AFR the fourth contender would join forces with one of the other consortiums if its bid fell through, with the “serious number crunching and bidding” expected to get under way next week," ......................................