Virgin Australia considers going into administration as Labor calls for govt rescue

Grounded Virgin Australia is considering going into administration as it races against time to get out from under a US$4.8b debt pile. Amid calls from the federal opposition leader, Anthony Albanese, for the govt to rescue the airline, it has hired insolvency and turnaround experts at Deloitte to work on restructure scenarios. It is believed that as part of the restructuring effort Virgin Australia has also hired the debt expert Jim McKnight of the investment bank Houlihan Lokey, who has worked on some of Australia’s biggest corporate collapses and rescues. Virgin Australia went into a trading halt Tuesday morning after the Australian reported it had hired Houlihan Lokey. <br/>