Yes, float = float on the market, in other words via IPO (or SPAC, but we don't do that anymore).
Yes, Bain can sell whatever portion of the company to whomever they want - bearing in mind, the more stake it sells, the harder it will be to align interests in terms of running the company until it's out.
I think here, Bain probably saw an opportunity, it has validated that VA is a fundamentally sound business that can already make money, and it's seeing a lot more money to be made with Bonza and Rex out - and if they can gobble up staff (hard to get in the airline industry right now in AU) and narrowbodies (also hard to get) to mitigate the 737max delays, well there is just way too much opportunity to pass up here.
Bain want a bigger, meaner VA, and they will absolutely go after it. I wouldn't be surprised if they pivoted and redid their entire strategy for the coming years based on this.
So why is the IPO delayed? They believe they can take action now to add a lot more value to VA, fairly easily, plus interest rates falling into next year will give them a higher price "for free".
