👉 Background: Virgin Australia first hit the Australian market back in 2000 under the name Virgin Blue. In 2011, it changed its name to Virgin Australia and it withstood the challenges from the likes of Tiger Airlines, Jetstar and Qantas.

‍👉 What happened: But, during COVID in early 2020, Virgin Australia went into administration and was acquired by private equity giant Bain Capital for $700 million, alongside more than $5 billion in debt. Since then, Virgin Australia has had a major turnaround with recorded earnings of $519 million in the last financial year.

‍👉 What else: So now, after locking in Qatar Airways as a minority shareholder last month, Virgin Australia is starting to prepare to go public. But before you get too excited about a new listing to the declining ASX, this is just a non-deal IPO roadshow.

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What's the key learning?

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‍💡A non-deal roadshow is basically a warm-up lap before the real IPO race begins. It’s not about selling shares just yet —but getting investors familiar with the business as well as its new CEO.

💡Companies use non-deal roadshow as a way to test the waters with investors and build buzz. They can learn what investors are thinking and use it to polish their pitch. And they can do all of this without committing to a valuation of the company or a timeline for the listing.

💡Recently, Qatar acquired a 25% stake in Virgin Australia for a rumoured $750m. So if you run the maths, that’s $3 billion. And you can bet this valuation will be one of the key questions on the lips of investors during this roadshow.