Sir Richard Branson is to sell a stake in Virgin Galactic worth about $500 million as part of efforts to save his struggling Virgin Atlantic airline from collapse.
His Virgin Group announced the proposed sale of up to 25 million shares in the New York-listed space tourism company with the aim of injecting cash into Virgin Atlantic and Virgin Australia as they struggle with fallout from the pandemic.
Sir Richard is also pressing ahead with plans to raise private funding for Virgin Atlantic after an application for £500 million of cash support from the UK government failed to get off the ground. The airline, which has said it is “exploring all available options to obtain additional external funding”, has hired Houlihan Lokey to advise it
