The airline facing a double-whammy after Trump's bunker-busting
You've probably never heard of Mike Murphy – but he is the guy who was choking on his smashed avocado toast at about 9am on Sunday when US President Donald Trump dropped his massive ordnance penetrators on three Iran nuclear installations.
Murphy runs the Australian arm of Bain, the majority owner of airline Virgin, which is set to list on the Australian market on Tuesday as the highest profile ASX entrant in years.
Timing is everything for investing, and for Bain, the timing of the Virgin listing looks atrocious.
Those investors who bought in pre-listing and who were looking to sell out immediately – for what are referred to as stag profits – may need to rethink.
Airlines, in particular, are highly sensitive to any geopolitical conflict and they are even more vulnerable to those in oil-producing territories.
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First, this is because the oil prices surges, and for airlines, fuel is one of the major costs.
Second, international airline flights can be disrupted, redirected or in some cases, those that fly over affected areas will temporarily abandon services.
Already, British Airways and Singapore Airlines have suspended a number of flights to the Gulf, affecting routes to key hubs such as Dubai, Doha and Bahrain, citing safety concerns and evolving airspace restrictions.
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The Age
18 minutes ago
- The Age
ASX set to rise as Wall Street gains in face of conflict; Oil prices tumble
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Sydney Morning Herald
18 minutes ago
- Sydney Morning Herald
ASX set to rise as Wall Street gains in face of conflict; Oil prices tumble
US stocks are climbing, and the price of oil is tumbling Monday on growing hopes that Iran will not disrupt the global flow of crude, something that would hurt economies worldwide but also its own, following the United States' bunker-busting entry into its war with Israel. The S&P 500 was 0.7 per cent higher in afternoon trading, coming off a week where stock prices had jumped up and down on worries about the conflict potentially escalating. The Dow Jones was up 269 points, or 0.6 per cent, as of 2 p.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.8 per cent higher. The Australian sharemarket is set to advance, with futures at 5am AEST pointing to a gain of 52 points or 0.6 per cent, at the open. The ASX lost 0.4 per cent on Monday. The Australian dollar is 0.1 per cent higher at 64.56 US cents at 5.10am. The price of oil did jump 4 per cent shortly after trading began Sunday night, a signal of rising worries as investors got their first chance to react to the US bombings. But it quickly erased all those gains and swung to a sharp loss as the focus shifted from what the US military did to how Iran would react. By Monday afternoon, the price of a barrel of benchmark US oil was down 6.1 per cent at $US69.34. Brent crude, the international standard, dropped 5.3 per cent to $US71.50 per barrel. That brought oil prices nearly back to where they were before the fighting began over a week ago, when a barrel of US crude was just above $US68. The losses accelerated sharply Monday after Iran announced a missile attack on Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar, which the US military uses. Iran said it matched the number of bombs dropped by the United States on Iranian nuclear sites this past weekend, which could be a potential signal of a desire to deescalate the conflict. Loading Perhaps most importantly for financial markets, that retaliation did not seem to target the flow of oil. The fear throughout the Israel-Iran war has been that it could squeeze the world's supply of oil, which would pump up prices for it, petrol and other products refined from crude. Iran is a major producer of crude, and it could also try to block the Strait of Hormuz off its coast, through which 20 per cent of the world's daily oil needs passes on ships.
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Anthony Albanese to be joined by slew of business leaders at Australia's Economic Outlook, hosted by Sky News and The Australian
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