Virgin Blue's prospectus lodged today.

[Whiskery]

Virgin float expected to raise $500m
Budget airline Virgin Blue has lodged its prospectus with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission in the lead-up to its listing on the stock exchange.

The proceeds of the offer are expected to be between $500 and $550 million.

Virgin Blue founder Richard Branson says he will remain the largest private shareholder.

"We are only filling shares in order to give the company the liquidity and then only 7 per cent of the company," he said.

"As a matter of interest, [chief executive officer] Brett [Godfrey] is holding onto all his shares and Patrick Corp will buy enough shares to keep their holding around 45 per cent."

Shares are expected to be issued at between $1.80 and $2.25, with the final price to be announced early next month.

Sir Richard says the public float will not affect his position within the company.

"As president of Virgin Blue I will continue in an almost identical role to the one I played in the past," he said.

"I will still remain by far the largest private shareholder dealing with strategic, advisory and promotional issues, with two of the Virgin group's key executives on the board."


So whom are we putting the money on [with] - Branson or Stoddart ?
:cool:

[Wirraway]

Virgin Blue: Branson Won't Have Formal Board Role

SYDNEY (Dow Jones)--Australian budget airline Virgin Blue said Monday that it intends to list on the Australian Stock Exchange Dec. 8 after raising between A$501 million and A$558 million in gross proceeds from a public offering of shares.

The airline said in a prospectus that it has set an indicative price range for its shares between A$1.80 and A$2.25.

The offer includes new shares worth more than A$400 million.

But major investor Richard Branson's Virgin Group (VGN.YY) also will sell shares as part of the offer

As a result, Virgin Blue will own around 29.1% of the company when it makes its stock market debut.

Patrick Corp. (PRK.AU) will buy more shares just to keep its stake steady, and will hold around 45.9% on listing day. Virgin Blue employees will have around 3.2% of the company and new investors some 21.8%.

Virgin Group has undertaken to sell sufficient shares to ensure that at least 25% of Virgin Blue will be owned by investors other than itself and Patrick, but can choose to sell additional shares through the offer.

The final pricing of the offer also will be up to Virgin Group, along with the joint global coordinators after the close of an institutional offer.

A portion of the capital raising will go to Virgin Group. In addition, Virgin Blue said proceeds from the offer will help it pursue growth opportunities, enhance its capital position and facilitate an employee incentive program through share ownership in the company.

The retail offer is set to open Nov. 17 and close Nov. 28. An institutional bookbuild will be held between Dec. 3 and Dec. 5.

As a sweetener for employees, the airline is giving certain staff A$1,000 of new shares for free.

Newly appointed chairman Chris Corrigan, the chief executive at Patrick Corp., said the airline's key strengths include its relatively low cost structure, low fares, experienced management team and strong brand.

"Virgin Blue has already proven its ability to operate successfully in a competitive market and the directors are confident that this will continue in the future," said Corrigan.

The airline has a total domestic market share of more than 28% and wants to increase the frequency of services on existing routes as well as launch services on new business and leisure routes. The company also has plans to begin Pacific flights.

Richard Branson, who founded Virgin Blue in 2000, said Virgin Group plans to maintain a "significant stake" in the business as part of its long-term global airline strategy.

Branson has been given the title of "life president" of Virgin Blue but won't take up a formal board role due to "other global commitments."

Two other Virgin Group directors, Stephen Murphy and Patrick McCall, will be on Virgin Blue's board.

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[oldhasbeen]

" certain staff " ???????????????:uhoh:

[Big Hairy Potatoes]

It is actually all staff directly employed by Virgin blue. i'm not sure what's happenning with contractors.

[Sperm Bank]

Not a bad deal for the pilots. Good things come to those who wait.

[Wirraway]

Tues "Melbourne Age"

http://www.theage.com.au/ffxImage/urlpicture_id_1068329488535_2003/11/10/11b_virgin.jpg

Branson turns $10m to $2bn
By Malcolm Maiden
November 11, 2003

Good timing has always played a part in Sir Richard Branson's fortunes. After setting up in business in 1966 with £4 borrowed from his mother, he picked the beginning of a British rock renaissance in 1972, when he founded Virgin records as a mail-order business backed by one store in London's Oxford Street.

One year later he laid the foundation of his fortune by backing an unknown musician, Mike Oldfield, to record Tubular Bells, a classic-tinged album that sold 13 million copies.

In the mid-'70s he made the right call again, when Virgin signed the Sex Pistols as other record labels were paying the punk band to go away. And in 1984 he identified a new generation of airline customers when he parlayed Virgin's street credentials into ownership of a new, hip, Trans-Atlantic airline, Virgin Atlantic.

Fifteen tough years later, Sir Richard sold 49 per cent of Virgin Atlantic to Singapore Airlines for almost £1 billion ($A2.36 billion).

But his best decision was in 1999 to outlay $10 million to back one his executives, Australian Brett Godfrey, to create the Virgin Blue discount airline.

Yesterday Virgin and its partner, Patrick Corporation, launched a partial float that will raise up to $558 million, and value Virgin Blue at between $1.9 billion and $2.3 billion - depending on demand - when it lists on the Australian Stock Exchange in just over a month.

Sir Richard's group will have extracted about $700 million on its original investment when Virgin Blue lists, and it will still own almost one-third of the company, valued at between $550 million and $667 million. Brett Godfrey's own stake will be worth between $61.5 million and $73 million.

"Virgin Blue is perhaps one of the most successful companies ever to emerge in Australia - one of the most successful companies anywhere in the world," Sir Richard said yesterday.

The UK entrepreneur added: "To say that I forecast it, I don't think anybody would believe me."

"This investment has been Virgin's shining star," Brett Godfrey said. "Did I believe it would be worth $2 billion in two years? Absolutely not."

Virgin Blue took off in August 2000, and was designed to be a low-cost alternative. Passengers - or guests as Virgin prefers to call them - were quick to accept online, ticketless booking and user-pays food and drink in return for lower fares. But the airline was also created when the airline industry was on the cusp of momentous events.

It had won 17 per cent of Australia's domestic air travel market by September 2001, when terrorists flew passenger airliners into the World Trade Centre in New York.

In the chaos that followed, airline traffic plunged and Ansett, already struggling in the face of a discount war with Qantas and Virgin, went into voluntary administration. By March last year plans to revive Ansett had been abandoned and Virgin Blue's future was secure. It now has more than 28 per cent market share.

Sir Richard took on Patrick Corporation, run by Chris Corrigan, as a 50 per cent partner last March, and at the $1.80 to $2.25 a share share float price range, Patrick is also sitting on large paper profits on its $500 million entry price.

But the Australian company will buy more shares in the float to maintain its 45 per cent stake in Virgin Blue.

Virgin will sell 7 per cent of its existing holding to emerge with a stake of just over 29 per cent.

Virgin's frequent flyers will be given priority in the float, but demand is expected to brisk, and float advisers are tipping that orders will be scaled back.

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