Virgin Australia owes $4.4 billion to creditors based on initial review: administrator

SYDNEY (Reuters) – Virgin Australia Holdings Ltd owes A$6.9 billion ($4.39 billion) to more than 10,000 creditors based on an initial review, according to an affidavit from one of the company’s administrators.

Virgin on Tuesday succumbed to third-party led restructuring that could lead to a sale, making Australia’s second-biggest airline the Asia-Pacific region’s biggest victim of the coronavirus crisis gripping the industry.

The figure owed to creditors includes around A$2.3 billion of secured debt, A$2 billion of unsecured bonds, A$1.9 billion of aircraft leases, A$450 million owed to employees, A$167 million to trade creditors and A$71 million to landlords, said the affidavit from administrator Vaughan Strawbridge posted on the website of his firm Deloitte.

(Reporting by Jamie Freed; Editing by Himani Sarkar)