Virgin Atlantic takes flight with surprise plot to land on London stock market

Published

4 years ago

August 7, 2021

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Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Atlantic Airways is plotting a surprise flotation on the London Stock Exchange as it pins its hopes on a rapid rebound in transatlantic travel.

Sky News has learnt that Virgin Atlantic has been holding talks with institutional investors about making its public market debut just five months after landing a fresh £160m capital injection.

City sources said this weekend that institutions’ response to management presentations led by the airline’s executives had been positive, and that an autumn announcement of an intention to float now looked likely.

An initial public offering (IPO) would mark the first time since Virgin Atlantic’s launch in 1984 that it has sold shares to the public – and would almost certainly see Sir Richard relinquish overall control of the business.

Bankers at Citi and Barclays have been hired to oversee the listing, according to insiders.

Virgin Atlantic is majority-owned by Sir Richard’s Virgin Group, which holds a 51% stake.

Delta Air Lines owns the remaining 49%, with the company having scrapped a deal in late 2019 that would have seen Air France-KLM acquiring a 31% shareholding from Sir Richard.

Selling shares to the public would inevitably mean Virgin’s stake being diluted unless Sir Richard elected to subscribe for new equity in the IPO.

A flotation of Virgin Atlantic would be another milestone for an airline which has been among the industry’s worst-hit by the pandemic, largely because of its dependence on lucrative UK-US flights.

Last September, it assembled a £1.2bn rescue package which included a £200m injection from its founder, a loan from the American hedge fund Davidson Kempner Capital Management, and substantial contributions from existing creditors.

That restructuring was implemented on a solvent basis, but only after administrators had been placed on standby.

The aviation industry’s failure to stage a rapid recovery amid continued travel restrictions led Virgin Atlantic to seek a total of approximately £300m more – in two instalments – that was generated by the sale of several Dreamliner aircraft and a further loan from Virgin Group.

Virgin Atlantic is not in urgent need of new funding, with adequate financing in place to see it through the next few months, according to insiders.

However, executives including Sir Richard are said to back the idea of a listing to provide additional future opportunities to raise money during the post-COVID recovery and beyond.

A presentation to City investors made in the last few days is said to focus on Virgin Atlantic’s strong positioning to take advantage of pent-up demand for international travel.

Bookings on the key New York-to-London route are said to have surged by 150% this month, although the industry continues to seek further concessions from the Biden administration to open up travel to the US for fully vaccinated passengers.

Virgin Atlantic has also nearly halved its workforce since the start of the pandemic – a move that has helped to drive significant longer-term cost savings.

Going public would bring Virgin Atlantic into line with many of its publicly traded peers, such as British Airways’ parent International Airlines Group, easyJet, Ryanair, American Airlines and Cathay Pacific.

Between them, IAG and easyJet have raised billions of pounds to steer them through the COVID-19 crisis, although they are likely to require further funding given that many executives do not believe pre-coronavirus levels of demand will be seen again until 2024.

Virgin Atlantic is not the only part of Sir Richard’s business empire which has felt the pressure of the pandemic.

The UK arm of Virgin Active also came close to collapse after putting a restructuring deal to landlords, lenders and shareholders.

His Virgin Voyages cruise operation finally embarked on its maiden journey this week after more than a year of setbacks.

Nevertheless, the billionaire tycoon has been buoyed by the performance on the New York stock market of Virgin Galactic, which has soared in value and enabled him to raise hundreds of millions of pounds to prop up struggling leisure and travel businesses.

Last month, Sir Richard flew aboard a Virgin Galactic trip to the edge of space, days before his even-wealthier rival, the Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, did the same on a Blue Origin vehicle.

Sir Richard is now in the process of taking Virgin Orbit public through a merger with a US-listed special purpose acquisition company (SPAC).

A Virgin Atlantic spokesman said the airline did not comment on speculation.

Business

Daily Mail owner lines up NatWest to help fund £500m Telegraph bid

Published

1 hour ago

December 11, 2025

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Daily Mail owner lines up NatWest to help fund £500m Telegraph bid

The owner of the Daily Mail is lining up one of Britain’s biggest high street lenders to help bankroll its £500m deal to buy The Daily Telegraph.

Sky News has learnt that DMGT has turned to its long-standing bank, NatWest Group, to lend a substantial chunk of the Telegraph purchase price.

City sources said on Thursday that discussions between the two were still in progress.

It was unclear how much of the consideration NatWest might finance, or how much equity DMGT intended to put up as part of the deal.

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Last month’s announcement that DMGT was in exclusive talks to buy Telegraph Media Group achieved a long-standing ambition of the Mail proprietor, Lord Rothermere, to own the rival right-leaning newspaper.

However, the transaction still needs to be formally submitted to the culture secretary, Lisa Nandy, who has effectively asked for details of the proposed deal by early next week.

Lengthy inquiries by the Competition and Markets Authority and Ofcom are also expected to follow.

DMGT’s exclusivity period came within days of a consortium led by RedBird Capital Partners abandoning its own deal amid opposition from within the Telegraph newsroom.

NatWest’s position as a principal lender would, in theory, be advantageous to Lord Rothermere, who will not want to be reliant on overseas financing for the deal.

The DMGT owner had originally intended to acquire a minority stake of just under 10% in the Telegraph titles as part of the RedBird-led transaction.

A previous deal proposed by a consortium including RedBird and the Abu Dhabi state-owned investment firm IMI collapsed after the government changed the law regarding foreign state ownership of national newspapers.

“I have long admired the Daily Telegraph,” Lord Rothermere said last month.

“My family and I have an enduring love of newspapers and for the journalists who make them.

“The Daily Telegraph is Britain’s largest and best quality broadsheet newspaper, and I have grown up respecting it.

“It has a remarkable history and has played a vital role in shaping Britain’s national debate over many decades.”

If the deal is completed, it would bring the Telegraph newspapers under the same stable of ownership as titles including Metro, The i Paper and New Scientist.

DMGT said in November that it planned “to invest substantially in TMG with the aim of accelerating its international expansion”.

“It will focus particularly on the USA, where the Daily Mail is already successful, with established editorial and commercial operations.”

NatWest declined to comment.

Business

OpenAI bags Disney characters for Sora short video app

Published

4 hours ago

December 11, 2025

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OpenAI bags Disney characters for Sora short video app

OpenAI has signed its first major licensing deal to bring well-known characters to life on its Sora video generation tool.

The company said the agreement with Walt Disney was part of a push to ensure the rights of creators in the generative artificial intelligence (AI) space amid growing concerns over copyright, fakes and misinformation.

It forms part of a $1bn Disney investment in OpenAI, that will see the entertainment firm roll out ChatGPT to its staff and grow its AI capabilities.

Money latest: Urgent warning over tumble dryers

The initial three-year licensing deal will allow Sora users to generate and share videos based on more than 200 Disney, Marvel, Pixar and Star Wars characters.

These include Mickey Mouse, Cinderella and Luke Skywalker.

Sora allows people to quickly create realistic clips based merely on text prompts.

Disney and OpenAI said they were committed to responsible use of AI amid the backlash from critics who have pointed to widespread misuse of generative AI in the social media space – a practice known as AI slop.

Some have depicted fake messages from celebrities and even used the dead.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said: “This agreement shows how AI companies and creative leaders can work together responsibly to promote innovation that benefits society, respect the importance of creativity, and help works reach vast new audiences.

His counterpart at Disney, Bob Iger, added that the partnership would “extend the reach of our storytelling through generative AI, while respecting and protecting creators and their works”.

As part of the deal, some user-generated Sora videos will be made available on the Disney+ streaming service.

Dan Coatsworth, head of markets at AJ Bell, said of the tie-up: “It’s a win-win situation for Disney and OpenAI. Disney gets to deploy its beloved brands in the world of AI while keeping control of the intellectual property.

“Fans can use Disney characters to make videos and take social media content to another level. That could drive significant traffic to OpenAI’s Sora social media platform, turning a relatively unknown entity into a household name in a flash.

“As part owner of the business, Disney will be able to use the equity stake in OpenAI to ensure its characters are used in a controlled environment.

“It’s a significant step forward for the concept of fan fiction”, he concluded.

Business

Burger King UK lands new backing from buyout firm Bridgepoint

Published

9 hours ago

December 11, 2025

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Burger King UK lands new backing from buyout firm Bridgepoint

The private equity backer of Burger King UK has injected millions of pounds of new funding as part of a deal which paves the way for their partnership to be extended into the 2040s.

Sky News understands that Bridgepoint has invested a further £15m into the fast food giant in recent days, with a further sum – thought to be up to £20m – to be deployed over the next 18 months.

The new funding has been committed as Burger King UK’s Master Franchise Agreement with a subsidiary of Restaurant Brands International has been extended to 2044 in a deal which is said to align the interests of its various financial stakeholders more closely.

Burger King’s British operations comprise roughly 575 outlets, and employ approximately 12,000 people.

In results released this week, Burger King UK said it had delivered a “solid performance…amid sector headwinds” in 2024.

Revenue increased by 7% to £408.3m, with underlying earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation up 12% to £26m.

The company also said it had completed a refinancing process, with the maturity of its bank facilities pushed out to March 2028.

Under the leadership of Alasdair Murdoch, its long-serving chief executive, Burger King plans to open roughly 30 new sites next year.

It comes at a challenging time for the UK hospitality sector, with casual dining chains TGI Fridays and Leon both filing to appoint administrators in the last few days.

Industry bosses say that last month’s Budget has piled fresh cost pressures on them.

Bridgepoint declined to comment on the injection of new capital into Burger King UK.