Branson sells another £224m of his space flight firm to prop up Covid-hit travel and leisure businesses










Richard Branson has sold another £224m of Virgin Galactic shares to prop up a business empire hammered in the coronavirus pandemic. 

The billionaire got rid of 15.6m shares – 6 per cent of the space travel company – leaving him with 11.9 per cent. 

Branson, 71, has been engaged in a space race against Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin. 

Bailing out: Richard Branson (pictured) got rid of 15.6m Virgin Galactic shares -  6% of the space travel company – leaving him with 11.9%

Bailing out: Richard Branson (pictured) got rid of 15.6m Virgin Galactic shares –  6% of the space travel company – leaving him with 11.9%

Branson defeated Amazon founder Bezos into space on July 11th in a fight that took headlines around the world. The feat was achieved nine days after Bezos. 

But delays to the start of commercial flights have resulted in Virgin Galactic’s stock tumbling 20 per cent this year. 

The company is based in Las Cruces in New Mexico and expects to fly paying passengers into space at least three times per month by 2023. 

Branson is a stock seller to help his leisure and travel businesses including Virgin Atlantic. 

He has sold nearly £800million of shares in Virgin Galactic since the start of the Covid-19 crisis. 

There was speculation that he wanted to list Virgin Atlantic in London. However, that idea has since been dropped as transatlantic travel picked up last week. 

Advertisement