Comment: Branson's Virgin Atlantic is a risky punt but taxpayers may still have to bail the billionaire out

Sir Richard Branson is not having a good crisis.

When he looks across his business empire from his Necker Island retreat, he must feel like Napoleon after the battle of Liepzig – not routed altogether but dangerously weakened on all fronts.

His brand new cruise liner, Scarlet Lady, is run aground in an industry holed by travel bans and news footage of Covid plague ships.

Virgin Gyms are in lockdown, while his stake in Virgin Money, sold to CYBG two years ago for shares, is worth less than it paid for Northern Rock nine years ago.

And if, by the way, you thought the wily fox’s finances were never really affected by the collapses in companies bearing his name; that his wealth was based solely on licensing out the brand rather than having real skin in the game, think again.

His Virgin Group owns 13% of the bank alone – a share that has fallen in value by more than £400 million.

That’s got to hurt.

Now, he has the begging bowl out for the businesses of which he’s perhaps fondest - his airlines.

Australia has already given his request the thumbs down and his airline there went bust today.

The Treasury here has sent his request on Virgin Atlantic back once and is not much impressed.

Branson, whose family business owns 51% of the airline, yesterday promised to mortgage Necker as collateral for £500 million lin loans and guarantees.

You did it for easyJet, he says, now do it for us.

But there’s a difference.

EasyJet went into this crisis with one of the strongest balance sheets in the industry.

It had a chunky investment grade credit rating meaning it qualified for the government’s Covid commercial paper scheme along with the likes of BP.

Virgin can’t say the same.

Apart from a brand, it’s not clear what assets it has.

Necker might be nice to visit, but my guess is the government would prefer security over Virgin’s planes. However, unlike easyJet, Virgin doesn’t own them.

That means that, not only are they no use as collateral, but Branson couldn’t sell and lease them back if he had trouble repaying the loan.

Besides which, Virgin Atlantic is backed by billionaire Branson and Delta – one of the biggest, most profitable airlines in the world. Why should taxpayer money not used to save FlyBe be spent on a lossmaking airline with such rich owners?

But there’s the rub.

Delta may be rich, but it has received US state bailout cash which the White House will not allow to be used to prop up some limey airline.