Speculation over Sir Richard Branson's control of Virgin Atlantic grew today after Singapore Airlines confirmed it was in talks over the sale of its stake in the transatlantic airline.
America's largest airline, Delta, is believed to have approached Singapore Airlines about buying its 49% stake, with Singapore confirming today that it is talking to "interested parties".
If Delta succeeds, it has been reported that European partner Air France-KLM may then buy part of Sir Richard's 51% stake, leaving the entrepreneur without majority control of the airline.
Sir Richard, who set up the airline in 1984, is said to have been weighing its future for several years, appointing Deutsche Bank two years ago to examine offers.
Singapore said today: "Singapore Airlines wishes to announce that it is in discussions with interested parties concerning the possible divestment of its 49% shareholding in Virgin Atlantic.
"These discussions may or may not result in a transaction. Singapore Airlines will make further public announcements as necessary."
Delta and Air France-KLM came close to a deal in February 2011 but discussions broke down over price and Sir Richard's rights over the Virgin brand.
Virgin, which has its headquarters at Gatwick Airport, has a fleet of 40 aircraft and flies around six million passengers a year to long-haul destinations. It posted a pre-tax loss of £80 million in the 12 months to the end of February.
Singapore paid £600 million for its stake in 1999.
Earlier this year, British Airways expanded as it bought BMI British Midland, the second-largest Heathrow operator, giving it more than 50% of the crowded airport's take-off and landing slots.
Delta is America's biggest carrier by the number of passengers, carrying about 160 million a year compared with United Airlines' 140 million.
A statement from Virgin said today: "Virgin Atlantic confirms Singapore Airlines has made an announcement relating to the possible sale of their stake holding in the airline.
"This is a matter for Singapore Airlines and Virgin Atlantic will not comment further at this time."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article