6 days ago
- Business
- Sydney Morning Herald
‘What Australia needs': Qantas' chief rival looks to soar back onto ASX
Investors and stakeholders have greeted the terms of Virgin Australia's public listing with enthusiasm as the country's second-largest airline seeks to promote a more employee- and consumer-friendly image in the wake of rival Qantas' record.
Bankers for Virgin Australia are offering shares in the airline to investors at $2.90 apiece for its much-anticipated relisting on the ASX after a four-year odyssey through administration and privatisation.
Transport Workers Union assistant national secretary Emily McMillan said she was 'cautiously optimistic' for Virgin's IPO. 'I think overall, it is positive.'
'Now we're dealing with a stable, growing, profitable airline, which is what Australia needs – and certainly, what its workforce needs.'
As Virgin Australia struggled out of administration in 2020 and rebuilt a more simplified domestic business, Qantas – under the leadership of then-chief executive Alan Joyce – was engaged in a series of industrial relations battles that appeared to damage its public image.
Following a case that pitted Qantas against the TWU, the airline agreed in 2024 to pay $120 million in compensation to 1820 ground staff whose contracts were found to have been illegally terminated during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Private equity owner Bain Capital will sell about 30 per cent of Qantas' biggest rival, expecting to raise $685 million via the initial public offering, which would value the company at close to $2.3 billion.
The $2.90 price tag for the stock represents a multiple of seven times the airline's expected earnings this financial year, the bankers handling the sale said in their pitch to investors. That's cheaper than Qantas shares, which trade at around 10 times expected earnings for the same period.
