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Former Virgin Australia bondholders are being encouraged to join a class action suit against the airline’s former and current directors and senior executives in Federal Court.
It comes after unsecured creditors, including bondholders, received between just nine and 13 cents on the dollar on their investment following the sale of Virgin Australia to Bain Capital in 2020.
London-based Balance Legal Capital – a firm that has pledged to fund the lawsuit, led by Corrs Chambers Westgarth – stated that anyone who purchased unsecured notes in Virgin Australia following a 2019 prospectus is eligible to take part in the class action.
Corrs Chambers Westgarth previously provided advice to bondholders during Virgin’s voluntary administration.
According to a report by The Australian, the class action will allege that Virgin failed to disclose its true financial position in the 2019 prospectus, ahead of its planned $700 million capital raise to fund its acquisitions of the Velocity Frequent Flyer program.
Investors were invited to buy unsecured notes at $100 per note, and a minimum of 50 notes.
It is claimed that the while the prospectus noted that Virgin had incurred losses over the past three financial years, it also pointed to numerous measures being executed to return to profitability, including an organisation restructure planned to cut $75 million off annual costs, and a supplier review intended to cull costs by a further $50 million per year.
However, less than six months after the capital raise, the COVID pandemic hit, and Virgin filed for voluntary administration in April 2020 with debts in excess of $7 billion.
It is thought around $2.1 billion of this debt is allocated to bondholders.
Virgin Australia bondholders famously made numerous attempts to secure the sale of the airline themselves, after Bain Capital became administrator Deloitte’s top pick in the race.
In June 2020, bondholders broke cover to launch their sensational attempt to wrestle control of the airline from the two remaining bidders, Bain Capital and Cyrus Capital Investments.
Sydney advisory Faraday Associates lodged the proposal with administrator Deloitte three days after the official bidding process ended.
The offer involved $800 million to recapitalise the business and $125 million to keep it alive during the administration process.
Faraday Associates, which is representing bondholders, said in a statement, “Our plan offers a sustainable capital structure underpinned by public ownership to provide certainty and support the strong operating plan for the airline.”
Bondholders later lost a bid in Federal Court to obtain access to secret details of Bain’s “winning” bid approved by administrator Deloitte, and later increased their offer to secure the airline.
However, by August, they admitted defeat, with Bain’s deal rubber-stamped by creditors in September.
Rod Pickin
says:Ok so who is going to be sued? The administrators were the ones charged with finding a suitable and financial buyer so I fail to see how Bain could be in the frame for this one. There are many of us who consider that this whole fiasco was not handled appropriately. It will be interesting!
Rocket
says:You mean the $700M capital raising to buy BACK the part of Velocity that it sold fro a fraction of that??
The people it was sold to for a pittance must have been channeling Packer’s “you only get one Alan Bond” echo.
Seriously, this whole episode with VA would be too far-fetched for a movie plot. How can people be so completely incompetent and still keep their jobs……. let alone one of them get awarded for such ‘performance’.
Let’s hope this bursts the British billionaire bubble and wild and manufactured antics and once and for all display that in a business like this BS and near-do-wells just won’t cut it.
Kon
says:Perhaps you mean “ne`er-do-wells”.