Bain is the worst thing that could happen to Virgin and Australia and the staff. The Bain model is simple; suck the life out of what’s left of the business, suck out all the cash as well. Load the business with service and financial contracts that keep Bain sucking cash out for years. Roll the resulting financial turd in glitter and sell it to investors. Profit.
The value of Virgin to Bain is the huge cash flow airlines generate, not the potential for profit. What I think Bain would do is to get their hands on that cash flow for as long as possible. They would do that by making Virgin enter some very one sided contracts with Bain controlled entities. You would start with a leasing entity, a facilities entity, perhaps a fuel hedge/broker entity, a finance factoring entity and maybe others. The ‘’independent’’;Hoho!Haha! Board led by chairman Carla will rush to sign such deals.
‘’You then have a zombie company. The new Virgin looks like an airline, but it’s paying Bain a premium through a range of expensive one sided leasing and service contracts. You then dress up Virgin as a new bride and flog her to the stock market. Mums and dads will buy. Bain is still raking in the cash through its service provision entities. Then it parcels them up and sells them to the stock market before the contracts run out....making more money from gullible investors. Virgin is left with a huge cost base, ageing aircraft and no profits. Bain sucked the life out of it.
Of course in the old days they could just rip up the company and sell it to competitors. Not possible today.