Virgin Blue float brings Branson £96m

SIR Richard Branson's Virgin Group will pocket up to A$225.4m (£95.6m) from the float of his discount Australian airline Virgin Blue.

The group plans to reduce its stake in the airline from 46% to about 29.1% as part of an initial public offering of shares, netting it a cash windfall of between A$123m and A$184m. Branson has already received A$41.4m in the form of a dividend ahead of the initial public offering.

The prospectus for the float, released on Monday, said Virgin Blue, co-owned by Virgin and Australian transport group Patrick Corp, would offer shares at between A$1.80 and A$2.25 each. The final pricing will be determined by Virgin when an institutional book-building exercise closes on 5 December. The indicative price range values Virgin Blue at up to A$2.3bn - a modest premium to domestic Australian rival Qantas.

Aero-engines maker Rolls-Royce has begun work on a multi-million-pound research project to design a nearsilent jet engine. If successful, the project could bring respite to hundreds of thousands of Londoners who live near flight paths across the capital and are affected by aircraft noise. The company has teamed up with aero-acoustics technology experts at the Cambridge-MIT Institute at Cambridge University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and other aviation specialists to develop near-silent jet engines.