Business
Virgin Atlantic Airline files for bankruptcy due to COVID19
Virgin Atlantic Airways has filed for bankruptcy protection for its United States business, as it tries to nail down a £1.2 billion ($1.6 billion) rescue plan announced last month. It’s the second of Richard Branson’s airlines to do so during the COVID-19 pandemic, after Virgin Australia filed for “administration” — a form of bankruptcy in countries like Australia and England — earlier this year.
The Virgin Group airline filed for Chapter 15 bankruptcy in New York on Tuesday, marking the latest business casualty for the airline industry.
Virgin Atlantic, which is based in London and 49% owned by Delta Air Lines, was forced to ground all passenger operations in April.
The airline took its planes to the skies once more in July but, as travel restrictions continue and consumer confidence is low, it has failed to draw the crowds back in.
That said, Virgin Atlantic told a London court that it will run out of cash next month if the rescue plan is not approved. In particular, Virgin Atlantic is trying to renegotiate leases on most of its planes as well as loans it has taken in the past and can’t fully repay. Virgin Atlantic, which operates mostly in the United Kingdom, has administrative offices in Atlanta, Georgia, and a team in New York as well. (Virgin America, a different airline run by Branson focused on the US market, was bought by Alaska Airlines in 2017.)
The company has an asset management firm waiting to loan it £170 million ($222 million) to stop the immediate financial bleeding as soon as the five-year plan gets the okay from stakeholders and creditors. The rest of the value of the rescue plan comes from shareholders, including £200 million ($261 million) from Branson’s larger Virgin Group, cost savings, and possibly private investors. In court filings, Virgin Atlantic’s lawyers say the company already has support for the plan from a “substantial proportion of its stakeholders.”
“The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has had an adverse impact on not only [Virgin Atlantic], but the aviation industry as a whole, occasioning the near shutdown of the global passenger aviation industry,” the company’s lawyers wrote in the filing. “While [Virgin Atlantic] has taken various measures to manage its liquidity in light of the unprecedented financial and operating conditions it faces, a more comprehensive recapitalization is necessary to secure the future of its business and ensure that it is able to meet its liabilities and funding requirements beyond mid-September 2020.”
Source *** The Verge
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The Petroleum Products Marketing Company, a subsidiary of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, has increased the ex-depot price of Premium Motor Spirit, also known as petrol, to N155.17 per litre from N147.67 per litre Punch reports,
The PPMC disclosed this in an internal memo with reference number PPMC/C/MK/003, dated November 11, 2020, and signed by Tijjani Ali.
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The memo, a copy of which was seen by our correspondent, said the new ex-depot price would take effect from Friday.
The ex-depot price is the price at which the product is sold by the PPMC to marketers at the depots.
In its PMS price proposal for November, the PPMC put the landing cost of petrol at N128.89 per litre, up from N119.77 per litre in September/October.
It said the estimated minimum pump price of the product would increase to N161.36 per litre from N153.86 per litre.
The National Operation Controller, Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, Mr Mike Osatuyi, in a telephone interview with our correspondent, said the over N7 increase in ex-depot price would translate into an increase in pump prices.
“Crude oil price is going up,” he said, noting that the Federal Government has fully deregulated petrol prices.
Following the deregulation of petrol prices in September, marketers across the country adjusted their pump prices to between N158 and N162 per litre to reflect the increase in global oil prices.
Petrol price band had also risen from N121.50–N123.50 per litre in June to N140.80-N143.80 in July and N148-N150 in August.
The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Timipre Sylva, said in September that the government had stepped back in fixing the price of petrol, adding that market forces and crude oil price would continue to determine the cost of the product.
The Dangote group has reacted to a recent report published on Bloomberg that their cement company was solely exempted from the Land Border Closure by the Nigerian government.
The report revealed that Dangote Cement was still able to export products despite the land border closure put in place by the Federal Government thus gaining an ‘unfair’ advantage.
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Responding to the development in a statement sent to POLITICS NIGERIA, signed by Timilehin Oyedare, the cement giant disclosed that the report was ‘misleading’.
“Contrary to reports by Bloomberg that Dangote Cement was granted sole approval to export cement through the land borders, information has emerged that other companies also got approval to export through the land borders. Nigerian Customs Service has reportedly revealed that a gas company have also received presidential approval to move goods across the land borders.”
“Joseph Attah, the spokesperson for Nigerian Customs Service, was said to have clarified on phone from Lagos.”
“Dangote Cement and other companies in July, 2020 got partial special dispensation to export their products with certain sequence of crossing at Ilela land border in Sokoto State and Ohumbe land border in Ogun State, the company clarified.”
The Group Chief, Branding and Communications, Dangote Group, Mr. Anthony Chiejina, said the report is misleading and mischievous because it focused only on Dangote Cement as the sole beneficiary of the partial special dispensation.
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