Virgin Atlantic founder Sir Richard Branson sells 31pc stake in airline for £220m as part of new tie-up with Air France-KLM

Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Group is to receive a major windfall by selling down part of its stake in Virgin Atlantic in a major joint venture deal set to include Air France-KLM and existing investor Delta Air Lines. Air France-KLM is to buy a 31pc stake in Virgin Atlantic for £220m. Virgin will hold on to a 20pc stake in the trans-Atlantic airline, and hold onto the chairmanship, as a result of the deal which will see a closer union between the four airlines. Delta, which bought a 49pc stake in Virgin Atlantic from Singapore Airlines in 2013, will at the same time buy a 10pc stake in Air-France KLM for €375m, gaining a seat on the board of its European counterpart. Sir Richard Branson will remain the largest majority shareholder after the joint venture deal Alitalia’s involvement is through its existing partnerships with Air France-KLM and Delta, but the deal will not see the Italian carrier gain any equity interest in the joint venture or have a seat atop the entity. Shai Weiss, chief commercial officer for Virgin Atlantic, said the deal was not linked to the UK’s impending exit from the EU. “I can say really definitively this has nothing to do with Brexit,” he said, adding the rationale was entirely commercial. Mr Weiss said the airline did not fly intra-Europe and so the joint venture was not a way to secure such flying rights post-Brexit. He said the success of its existing joint venture with Delta, which had helped provide so-called feed traffic – passengers who take a short haul flight to a hub airport before travelling on a long haul flight – could now be replicated with passengers from Europe. If the UK endures a hard Brexit, rules which says airlines have to be majority domestic …Read the rest of this story

Source:: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/virgin-atlantic-founder-sir-richard-162407220.html