Virgin Australia International (VA, Brisbane International) shareholder Richard Branson has aired the possibility of selling his Virgin Group's remaining shareholding in Virgin Australia, saying the airline's branding is more important to him than ownership. The issue was raised following the recent 10% share acquisition by Singapore Airlines (SQ, Singapore Changi) which has watered down the group's overall stake to 13%; a figure that has raised some questions as to the Group's future plans for the airline. Branson is quoted as saying "the 13 percent is pretty strategic in that it could be very valuable to a player one day, but it's not that important from the Virgin Group's point of view." Regarding a potential sell off to Etihad Airways (EY, Abu Dhabi International), who had their own designs on Virgin Australia as part of their global strategy of securing alliances with other carriers either through codeshares or by equity holdings, Branson stated that he "would cross that bridge once he came to it."