Vaughan Strawbridge, John Greig, Sal Algeri and Richard Hughes were appointed Joint and Several Administrators (Administrators) of Virgin on 20 April 2020, pursuant to the provisions of Section 436A of the Corporations Act 2001 (Act).
As the Administrators:
- we assume responsibility for the business and operations of Virgin. Subject to the various COVID-19 restrictions that are in place, we intend to continue trading Virgin’s business whilst we undertake a process to recapitalise the business to bring it out of administration as soon as possible
- Houlihan Lokey, who were appointed by Virgin prior to our appointment to seek a recapitalisation of Virgin, will be retained to continue this work with management and the Administrators
- we are responsible for dealing with the staff and suppliers of the business in respect to the ongoing trading of the business from the date of our appointment.
Whilst we assume responsibility for the business, Paul Scurrah and the Virgin management team will continue to be in charge of the operations of the business, with support from our team and us. We are working with management to support the review and roll out role of Virgin’s strategic plans to provide the platform for enhanced profitability and viability of Virgin when COVID-19 impacts break.
In respect of Houlihan Lokey’s appointment, a number of parties have already registered their interest in being involved in seeing Virgin come through this process as a restructured financially secure business, which can re-commence normal operations as soon as possible as the COVID-19 pandemic allows.
We are committed to working with the Virgin and Houlihan Lokey team to ensure the success of this process which is intended to continue the employment of the majority of the current 10,000 strong Virgin team, whilst obtaining the best outcome for all stakeholders.
We will update you as this work progresses and on the expected timetable for the recapitalisation. All communication should continue through existing reporting lines within the Virgin team.
