I’ve just read that Eimskip - the holding company (is it the holding company?) - has loads of cash. If that’s the case, is it possible for a subsidiary - XL Leisure (parent of XL Airways) - to actually go bankrupt - if the holding company has enough money? Surely it can’t if the holding company has enough working capital?
Depends. If a chronic money loser and current business projections do not show returns commensurate with the (increasing) cost of capital, then the Holding company would not want to inject/risk more capital. It's called throwing good money after bad. It is, however, a strange time to pull the plug now that oil prices, the cause of most of the recent line failures, are hovering around USD100 and showing signs of going down at least to USD85.