nomdeplume

This is a very simplified version of what actually happened. Having been in the boardroom before/during/after covid I can tell you it was a hell of a lot more complex and dire than this. The group went very close to maxing out the existing debt facility mid 2020 before finally securing new financing. In July 2020 VRL was a very unappealing business to be sinking money into so this was far from a guarantee...and at the time it was burning $15m a month. EDIT: the government announced it would commit to supporting the business, and then provided no specifics about how and when this would happen.

Most/all of this spend was committed to before covid (and is being funded by huge debt). At its worst point, the joint had a couple of weeks left to run before it was lights out. It’s going to take many years before this is a healthy business, and right now there are much bigger priorities. There are about 20 people on the planet that notice the trivial issues being discussed here and they’re all on this thread.

Understand that the business is in survival mode. Things are improving (compared to being closed) but there is a long way to go. Financially, the business is/was in very dire straits...it was on the precipice in 2020. They're trying to rebuild it from the ashes but that will take time and some of the cosmetic issues described here are taking a back seat while that happens.