Posted on 04/22/2020 6:33:50 PM PDT by Rummyfan
Corona's corporate victims continue to pile up, from Playboy magazine and The Jewish Chronicle to airlines around the world. I had a crummy flight on Virgin Australia - Perth to Adelaide - a few years back, and have eschewed it ever since. But I may not be able to maintain my boycott: It has now gone into bankruptcy administration, and Virgin Atlantic looks to be heading the same way. Richard Branson has been forced to explain that, even though he's worth £4.7 billion, it's not kept in a silo on his private island where he ploughs it back and forth like Scrooge McDuck, and right now he's having a bit of a hard time laying his hands on the folding stuff.
The suggestion that the Government of the United Kingdom bail out Virgin Atlantic has not been well-received. Sir Richard is domiciled in a tax haven - the British Virgin Islands, of course - and so Fleet Street's finest have pointed out that the great man does not personally support the National Health Service with his taxes yet expects everybody else to divert their taxes from the NHS to rescue his flagship brand.
Is this the end of Britain's most flamboyant entrepreneur? I wouldn't bet on it. As I noticed in this profile of him for The Sunday Telegraph twenty-two years ago, Branson has spent his entire life being rescued by the government...
(Excerpt) Read more at steynonline.com ...
A lot of companies will use Coronavirus to hide problems that already existed.
As did some companies after 9/11.
Exactly. A variation one what Wall Street/CFOs call a “Big Bath, or, “Taking a Bath.”
Mark Steyn’s columns are incredibly funny !
And this is one of his better ones!
Well it sounds like I won’t be getting my $3500 refund from VA for the flights they canceled last month. Either that or get in line with the other unsecured creditors....
Branson has spent his entire life being rescued by the government...Sounds a lot like Musk to me.
Steyn has a funny line about Branson becoming “the first virgin since Elizabeth I to go all the way,” but Queen Victoria became queen at age 18 in 1837 and did not get married until 3 years later. So very likely she was a virgin when she became queen. But maybe kids learn things in school in Canada about the British monarchy that are not common knowledge.
Most of it is in assets which would have to be sold off to raise cash to bail out the airline.
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