-Street Talk
Bain hot favourite for Virgin final round
Sarah Thompson, Anthony Macdonald and
Tim Boyd
Jun 2, 2020 – 9.42am
It's all quiet on the Virgin Australia front; there's still no shortlist to be seen.
Bidders are restless, Deloitte and its camp have gone to ground, the clock's ticking and there's plenty at stake.
However, one hot favourite has emerged for the auction's final round.
Bain Capital's Mike Murphy: "We are formulating our strategy on exactly where Virgin should be positioned."
Sources said Bain Capital came out of Monday's clarification process as the bidder most likely to be shortlisted.
Should Deloitte and Co (Morgan Stanley, Houlihan Lokey and Clayton Utz) stick to two bidders in the final round theory, that would leave only one spot for the other four contenders BGH Capital, Indigo Partners, Cyrus Capital and Canada's Brookfield (which re-emerged despite walking from the process more than a fortnight ago).
Bain's early favouritism spells bad news for Virgin boss Paul Scurrah,
who laid out what other bidders think is a credible vision for Virgin and made no secret of his ambitions to lead the company under new owners. Bain has ex-a2 Milk Company and Jetstar boss Jayne Hrdlicka on board and she's expected to take Scurrah's job should Bain end up buying the airline.
Bidders expect to find out their fates later on Tuesday.
more to come