Bain Capital postpones Virgin Australia IPO plans, sources say

Bain Capital has pushed back plans for a Virgin Australia Airlines Pty Ltd. initial public offering to as soon as 2024, according to people familiar with the matter.

The US buyout firm is no longer considering a listing for the carrier in 2023 and will monitor market conditions next year to determine the potential timing, said the people, who asked not to be identified as the discussions are confidential. Bain will look to end-of-year holiday travel to bolster Virgin’s earnings before a possible IPO, one of the people said. 

Bain earlier this year appointed Goldman Sachs Group Inc., UBS Group AG and Barrenjoey Capital Partners Pty Ltd. as lead managers and was targeting a listing in November, Bloomberg News has reported.  

Details of the potential listing could change and there’s no guarantee it will happen next year, the people said. A spokesperson for Bain declined to comment, while a representative for Virgin referred requests for comment to Bain. 

Virgin’s IPO was set to be one of Australia’s largest this year, and a rapid return to public markets less than three years after the airline collapsed under a mountain of debt. Bain bought Virgin in a A$3.5 billion ($2.2 billion) rescue deal that wiped out much of unsecured creditors’ claims.

The company reported its first annual profit in 11 years on Tuesday, returning a fiscal-year after-tax profit of A$129 million, according to a statement. The company will hire 1,500 frontline staff in its 2024 financial year.