Mr Richard Branson's Virgin Express regional airline said yesterday it aimed to take off as a publicly quoted company on the US Nasdaq and Brussels Easdaq stock markets from mid-November.
"I can confirm that we'll have an offering in Brussels and Nasdaq . . . we think this should be done by mid-November," Virgin Express's chief executive officer, Mr Jonathan Ornstein, said. The Brussels-based carrier, which was launched in April 1996 after Branson bought 90 per cent of Euro-Belgian Airlines (EBA), has exceeded its own growth expectations and already said in June it was considering a bourse listing.
Mr Ornstein said Virgin Express aimed to raise "roughly" $100 million (£68.4 million) of new money which it would use for "new aircraft, development, systems upgrade, and to help grow the business".
The company said in New York on Tuesday it intended to make an initial public offering of 2.14 million shares to US and international investors, which Mr Ornstein said would cover Brussels as well.
"A registration statement relating to the offerings will be filed promptly with the US Securities and Exchange Commission," the New York statement said.
Mr Ornstein said Mr Branson was not selling any of his own shares in the issue which will be lead-managed by investment bank Merrill Lynch. But he said it would depend on the offer price whether Branson's stake in Virgin Express would drop below 50 per cent.
Mr Ornstein, who gave no other financial details of the initial public offering, will be chief executive of the newly-listed company and Branson chairman.
Mr Ornstein declined to give earnings figures but said the carrier's load factor, over 70 per cent in the year to date, had risen to over 75 per cent in the previous quarter.
In 1996, Virgin Express had turnover of about $200 million and carried about 2.5 million passengers. "And the business has grown fairly significantly (since then)," he said.
Virgin Express's bourse entry would be the third by a "low-fares, no-frills" airline this year following public offerings by Ryanair and Debonair.
