Virgin Atlantic is considering an unexpected flotation on the London Stock Exchange as it looks to rebound from the woes of the pandemic.
According to a report on Sky News, Richard Branson’s Virgin Atlantic has been sounding out institutional investors about an initial public offering (IPO), only five months after it got a £160m capital injection.
Sources say the general attitude toward going public has been positive and that we should expect an announcement sometime in the autumn.
A public flotation of company stock would be a first for Branson’s airline – and would almost surely mean that he would relinquish overall control of the company, in which his Virgin Group holds a 51 per cent stake.
The other 49 per cent is owned by Delta Airlines.
In late 2019 Virgin Atlantic was set to sell 31 per cent of Branson’s stake to Air France-KLM, but the deal was abandoned at the last moment.
