Virgin Australia pays $1 for Tigerair stake
THE AUSTRALIAN OCTOBER 17, 2014 12:13PM
VIRGIN Australia plans to buy the remaining 40 per cent of loss-making low-cost carrier Tigerair Australia from Singapore Airlines for $1 and fly the airline internationally.
The transaction will see the low-cost carrier become a wholly owned subsidiary of Virgin (VAH), which already owns a 60 per cent stake, for which it paid $35 million.
Virgin will keep Tigerair’s low cost business model and the separate brand.
Virgin will also secure the brand rights of Tigerair Australia to a number of international destinations its says will provide new growth opportunities.
“Given the ongoing subdued consumer demand in the Australian domestic market, the growth of the Tigerair Australia domestic fleet is likely to be reduced,’’ Virgin boss John Borghetti said. “Under this proposed transaction, we will benefit from the economies and achieve profitability ahead of schedule by the end of 2016 by leveraging the resources of the Virgin Australia Group.’’
The transaction is subject to conditions, including Foreign Investment Review Board approval and Tiger Holdings shareholder approval, but is expected to be completed by the end of the year.
Mr Borghetti said Singapore-based Tiger Airways Holdings and Virgin had worked together over the past 14 months on building a strong operating platform for the Australian operation. This had strengthened systems and processes, increased aircraft utilisation, established a Brisbane base and leveraged synergies across a range of areas.
“We remain committed to maintaining the airline’s low cost business model and the separate Tigerair brand, ensuring that we can continue to deliver the most competitive pricing in Australian budget travel,” Mr Borghetti said.
Virgin plans to maintain a partnership with Tiger through brand licencing and certain services which would continue to be provided by the Singapore company to Tiger Australia.
Virgin last year acquired a 60 per cent stake in Tiger, which effectively returned the Australian aviation market to a duopoly shared by Virgin and Qantas Airways Ltd.
Approving the deal in April 2013, the consumer watchdog said it was unlikely to lead to a substantial lessening of competition in the Australian market for domestic air passenger transport services.
Virgin announced the Tigerair purchase as it posted a first quarter net loss of $59.1 million.
This translated to an underlying pre-tax loss was $45m, an 18.3 per cent improvement compared on the first quarter last year, on revenue growth of 1.3 per cent.
Virgin said the first quarter was traditionally weak and weakness in the leisure market meant group yield was in line with the previous year, despite an increase in high-yielding passengers.
The airline took a restructuring charge in the quarter of $8.2m and hedging ineffectiveness cost it $14.3m. But the results excluded a share of equity-accounted losses in Tigerair of $11.6m for the quarter, up from $9.7m in the prior corresponding period.
It managed to keep unit costs under control with costs per available seat kilometre rising just 1 per cent.
Virgin chief financial officer Sankar Narayan said the results reflected improved performance compared to the same quarter last year, despite the ongoing weak consumer sentiment.
“While the leisure segment has remained subdued, we have delivered further growth in the corporate and government segment,’’ he said, noting the impact of weak leisure demand was more pronounced at Tigerair.
Mr Narayan said the airline would continue to realise benefits from its cost reduction this financial year and forward intakes were up by 3 per cent at September 30.