Richard Branson Offers Private Island As Collateral for Loan
Virgin Australia has collapsed. The struggling airline went into administration and is now seeking buyers and investors after the Australian government refused to give it a $1.4 billion loan. Virgin Group CEO Richard Branson has offered his private Caribbean island as collateral in hopes of securing a UK government bailout of Virgin Atlantic, Quartz reports.
“The challenge right now is that there is no money coming in and lots going out,” he wrote.
Last month, Virgin Australia reportedly asked the Australian government for a $1.4 billion loan. And the Financial Times reported last week that Virgin Atlantic has been told to resubmit its £500-million loan application, which reportedly failed to impress the British government.
Branson said he will offer his most prized possession, Necker Island in the British Virgin Islands, as loan collateral. “As with other Virgin assets, our team will raise as much money against the island as possible to save as many jobs as possible around the group.”
Hard times - when you own an island, what again can you ask for? But Covid-19 has ideas to break everything. We desperately need vaccines.
This is how other rich boys are doing: With a model based on delivering groceries and household goods, plus revenue from streaming services, Jeff Bezos' Amazon is adding $billions to his net-worth.
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Warren Buffett and Bill Gates last year:
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Here they are YTD 2020:
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At least Mr Branson has an island to offer as collateral, some are going down with nothing to even present as collateral.
Airline operation is a small margin business, and Virgin Australia already had debt obligations to deal with, so asking for additional $1.4B didn't move the government enough; maybe the latter is not seeing any future there...
Other big boys have shed some weights, only Jeff is busy adding more fat to his system.
Whether in good times or time of crisis, the poor will always be worse; so nothing has really changed.