4 potential buyers make Virgin Australia shortlist: Source

Virgin Australia Holdings' administrators have shortlisted potential buyers BGH Capital, Bain Capital, Indigo Partners and Cyrus Capital Partners, a source with knowledge of the matter said. The airline's administrators were expected to receive as many as eight non-binding indicative offers from potential buyers before a submission deadline last Friday. Binding offers for the carrier, which is 10%-owned by Singapore Airlines, are due on June 12. The company entered voluntary administration last month, owing creditors nearly A$7b, making it the biggest Asia-Pacific casualty of the coronavirus crisis hitting the global aviation industry. The strong interest in Virgin Australia at a time when the world aviation market is largely grounded shows the long-time attractiveness of the Australian domestic market, a duopoly between Qantas Airways and Virgin. The administrators at Deloitte said in a statement that they had shortlisted a small number of well-funded parties with strong aviation credentials but declined to name them. Bain, which owns Trans Maldivian Airways, is being advised on its Virgin offer by Jayne Hrdlicka, the former head of Qantas budget airline Jetstar, according to media reports. One of BGH's founders, Ben Gray, led a failed takeover offer for Qantas in 2007 when he worked at private equity giant TPG. Indigo Partners' founder Bill Franke is the chairman of US carrier Frontier Airlines, Chile's JetSmart and Hungarian Wizz Air. Cyrus Capital was an investor in collapsed British regional carrier FlyBe, alongside Virgin Atlantic.<br/>