SIA

SIA: Delta Air Lines, the second-largest U.S. carrier, is said to be in talks to buy part or all of SIA’s 49% stake in Virgin Atlantic and gain more access to London’s Heathrow airport. Delta’s European partner in the SkyTeam alliance, Air-France KLM, might also take an additional stake in Virgin. The talks are at an early stage and it’s possible no agreement will be reached. After all, this isn’t the first time that SIA’s stake in Virgin Atlantic has been mooted for sale. Billionaire Richard Branson controls the other 51% of the airline. Virgin, the biggest rival to British Airways at Heathrow, has been seeking partners and in 2010 hired Deutsche Bank to assess options. A tie-up between Delta and Virgin could improve the U.S. carrier’s access to Europe’s busiest hub and its ability to capture lucrative trans-Atlantic business traffic. Representatives for Delta, Virgin, Air France-KLM and SIA declined to comment. SIA paid £600.3 m for its Virgin stake in 1999. Virgin isn’t a member of one of the three global airline alliances and has struggled to become profitable amid rising fuel prices and the global economic slowdown. The co posted a pretax loss of £80.2 m for FYFeb12. SIA trades at 1x P/B.