Virgin Australia In Financial Trouble?

[Brad Myer]

According to this:

https://australinea.com/virgin-australia-faces-financing-crush/

With oil prices starting to rise wonder if the reports of no more B737 deliveries and the removal of the entire ATR fleet are true?

[Greg McDonald]

Interesting. A very damning article that is aimed straight at Borghetti's 'lack of substance' changes within the airline. Where to from here?

[Yusef D]

Deceptive report from an non-credible site that sprung up last week. Journalism it ain't.

It's not good at VA but that reads like propaganda from someone looking to short VAH.

[Rowan McKeever]

It's far from the most professional writing or reporting I've ever read. It's poorly written, poorly edited, 'internally inconsistent', as a colleague would say, and at times misguided.

My first thought was 'okay, but what does the AFR think?' and I'd suggest, given the AFR hasn't run an article in quite the same terms as this one, that this supports Yusef's response. I also don't buy the line about NZ selling out to finance its own spending, that certainly wasn't my impression. Anyway, I think things ain't great for VA, but the real story isn't as bad as this article suggests.

[Radi K]

I don't think it's all "propaganda" - The figures show Virgin's balance sheet is low & it's very susceptible for a fuel or terrorism shock that it may not be able to withstand without another large and quick capital injection.

[Zac Clark]

I'm not complaining about the ATRs being removed.

[Rowan McKeever]

You might not be, but there will be regional communities which will and should complain.

[Zac Clark]

Yeah I know I live in one of those regional communities. Port Macquarie.

[Radi K]

Ha! :confused:

http://i.imgur.com/vZbT4Uc.png

[Brad Myer]

That says it all!!!

Not good...

[Rowan McKeever]

I'd suggest it mightn't say what you think it does. Virgin may have asked for it to be removed due to factual inaccuracies, non-public information, etc.

[Rob R]

The article contained over 10 factual inaccuracies hence it was removed. One inaccuruancy that stood out was the number of aircraft that the article stated VA owned. The article stated they owned 8, when they actually own 60. So simple facts like that were not checked by the author(s) before it was published.

[Yusef D]

The CEO has written to employees linking to that article refuting much of what it says, point by point. In this case I am inclined to believe (some of) what he says.

[Michael Mak]

An article on AFR: http://www.afr.com/brand/rear-window/virgin-boss-john-borghettis-resultsday-hoax-headache-20161102-gsgjrl

The article claimed Virgin had "limited options" for raising equity and suggested it would have issues financing its debt in the future. Virgin has dismissed the article, which is suspected to be a hoax, as factually wrong.

Attempts to contact the author were unsuccessful as the phone number and address linked to the website were fake. Australinea later removed the article at the request of Virgin, which presumably had its lawyers firing off a tersely worded email.

[Radi K]

inclined to believe (some of) what he says.

;)

Where there's smoke there's fire.

IMHO - a line-by-line internal email refuting the claims gives the article (& author) a measure of validity.

It's not a secret Virgin is not going great....but JB will never admit failure of his plan to turn the airline around. If only he didn't have that chip on his shoulder. You can read more about it in Matt O'Sullivan's book - Mayday: How warring egos forced Qantas off course (https://penguin.com.au/books/mayday-how-warring-egos-forced-qantas-off-course-9780670078370)