Although they have served on behalf of VS in the past, I highly doubt if they will do it this time around, unless VS wants Avro RJ85s on those routes
Its more likely it will come from Air France or KLM (who both have the aircraft VS is planning to use
Does the 51% majority shareholder have any say in who the minority 49% shareholder sells to, or can SQ just sell to anyone, whether Branson approves or not?
Are there any bi-lateral agreements between the UK and US about foreign ownership of airlines, and percentages thereof?
It is likely to be about LHR slots so another reason to expand LHR and stop the (non) availibility of slots being such an issue
If DL got 49% and and AF/KL got the rest, it would almost certainly be BD all over again: asset stripping of slots while VS dies a slow death being progressively robbed of its routes with the slots are reallocated to DL, AF and KL.
I think SQ would need the agreement of SRB in terms of selling its stake, hence why they would have little chance of selling it to BA for example (as I have suggested)
Also UK/EU law states that Non-EEA airlines can have a maximum of a 49% shareholding in any EEA-based airline
North America/EEA is fine in terms of bi-lateral agreements, everywhere else depends on the state, but to make sure that they don't lose (where the EEA as a whole don't not have a single agreement) out VS would have to remain based in the UK (on paper at least)