Virgin Australia, Bain Capital’s major IPO candidate, has canceled this week’s one-on-one meetings with well-funded institutional investors and group presentations to Sydney and Melbourne funds, telling them it would try to reschedule.
Virgin Australia is facing Australian funds this week to build support for its proposed IPO after the company pitched to Asian investors in March. James Alcock
UBS, Goldman Sachs and Barrenjoey had arranged face-to-face meetings with potential cornerstone investors in Australia with the aim of introducing them to Virgin top executives including Chief Executive Jayne Hrdlicka, Chief Financial Officer Race Strauss and Chief Development Officer David Marr.
These meetings were scattered throughout the week, including a group dinner in Sydney on April 18th and in Melbourne on April 20th for other Australian fundies.
“Due to unforeseen circumstances, Virgin Australia’s Non-Deal Roadshow (NDR) is being postponed. The Joint Lead Managers will be reaching out to investors with details of the updated NDR dates,” the release said.
Virgin is understood to be targeting an IPO bookbuild early in the second half. But meeting invitations sent out to fund managers last week were labeled “non-deal roadshows,” meaning Bain isn’t ready to talk offer pricing just yet.
Bold dashes sent along with invitations tell a story investors already know well – that Virgin has tamed its cost base since leaving administration in November 2020, already has a solid market share and is poised for growth through its flight and frequent flyer businesses is set.
The Australian meetings follow a similar pitch by Hrdlcka, Strauss and Marr to Singapore investors in late March.
Comments are closed.