Virgin Australia (VA, Brisbane International) has cancelled its non-deal roadshow (NDR) IPO lunches in Sydney and Melbourne this week, citing "unforeseen circumstances." This comes as the likelihood of an IPO in the first half of 2023 lessens despite the airline enjoy bumper revenues and consistently strong customer demand.

Virgin Australia CEO Jayne Hrdlicka, CFO Race Strauss, and Chief Development Officer David Marr, were due to make their pitches to fund managers in Sydney at a UBS hosted lunch on April 18, and back that up with a Goldman Sachs hosted lunch in Melbourne on April 20. Both banks are leads in the prospective IPO.

However, the Australian Financial Review reports that Virgin Australia has cancelled these lunches and other presentations they were due to give this week. "Due to unforeseen circumstances, the Virgin Australia NDR will be rescheduled. The joint lead managers will contact investors with details of the updated NDR dates," the cancellation notice read.

Presentations to potential investors in Singapore, Hong Kong, New York, Boston, and Los Angeles in March raised eyebrows in Australian corporate circles for their broad brushstrokes approach. Australia-based investors, more familiar with the airline, its history, operations, and executives, may prove a harder crowd to pitch to and ask for more detail.

"Significant transformation progress has been made through a refreshed management team with deep industry expertise, led by Jayne Hrdlicka," read the invite sent to Australian fund managers. "Continued growth trajectory expected from further transformation upside, yield optimisation, route/PAX growth and Velocity (frequent flyer program) engagement.”

The precise reasons for this week's cancellations remain unclear but are believed to relate to an illness or family matter among the trio of presenters. Efforts to reschedule the lunches are underway and it is not expected to delay the prospective IPO. The timing of the IPO, earlier this year flagged to occur as soon as May, has drifted out to the second half of the year. Virgin Australia's finances are audited twice yearly, based either on December 31 or June 30 figures, and take up to two months to sign off on. The current pitch uses December's data, but a 2H IPO will likely rely on June 30, 2023 data, which may not become available until late August/early September.

While there is still no price set on any IPO, owners Bain Capital have reportedly put a AUD3 billion Australian dollar (USD2.01 billion dollar) equity value on the airline, although they still have not confirmed how much of their stake they would sell. In the March offshore presentations, fund managers were told that Virgin Australia's debts were AUD1.97 billion (USD1.32 billion) as of December 31, 2022, while underlying EBIT was 11% in the second half of 2022. Meanwhile, a profit of approximately AUD400 million (USD268 million) is expected for the 12 months to June 30, 2023.