Air Canada is reportedly close to an agreement that would see Blackstone Inc. acquire a minority stake in Aeroplan for approximately US$2 billion.<\/p>\n
Citing people familiar with the confidential discussions, Bloomberg reported<\/a> that the deal could be announced as early as this week.\u00a0<\/p>\n Several Canadian funds are also expected to invest in the loyalty program alongside Blackstone.<\/p>\n The potential agreement comes as Air Canada prepares to report its earnings on Wednesday.\u00a0<\/p>\n Bloomberg Intelligence estimates the airline will post an 85 per cent year-over-year decline in adjusted net profit.<\/p>\n Air Canada, like other carriers, has been affected by rising jet-fuel prices linked to the war in Iran.\u00a0<\/p>\n The airline has also added service to\u00a0Europe and Asia in recent months to offset reduced travel to the United States amid geopolitical tensions.<\/p>\n The reported Aeroplan transaction follows a strategy used by several airlines during the pandemic, when widespread travel restrictions pushed carriers to seek alternative sources of financing.<\/p>\n A deal with Blackstone would mark the second time in just over two decades that Air Canada has brought outside investors into Aeroplan.<\/p>\n The loyalty program was separated from Air Canada following the airline\u2019s entry into bankruptcy protection in 2003.\u00a0<\/p>\n Aeroplan became a publicly traded company in 2005 before expanding into other loyalty businesses and changing its name to Aimia Inc.<\/p>\n The relationship between Aimia and Air Canada later deteriorated.\u00a0<\/p>\n In 2017, Air Canada announced it would not renew its agreement with Aimia and planned to launch a competing loyalty program.\u00a0<\/p>\n Aimia\u2019s shares fell 63 per cent in one day following the announcement.<\/p>\n Aimia agreed in 2018 to sell Aeroplan back to Air Canada for $450 million in cash, along with the assumption of certain liabilities.<\/p>\n Aeroplan has more than 10 million members worldwide.\u00a0<\/p>\n Members can earn and redeem points through Air Canada\u2019s network of more than 50 airline partners, as well as participating hotel and car rental companies.<\/p>\n Blackstone would reportedly make the equity investment through its credit and insurance division.<\/p>\n In July, Blackstone\u2019s credit and insurance division led a US$5.34 billion investment in Williams Cos. power plants alongside Apollo Global Management Inc. and KKR & Co. Inc.<\/p>\n The division also supported Rogers Communications Inc.\u2019s wireless network infrastructure through a $7 billion agreement last year.\u00a0<\/p>\n It provided EQT Corp. with US$3.5 billion in exchange for a non-controlling common equity interest in a new infrastructure joint venture.<\/p>\n Don’t miss a single travel story:\u00a0subscribe to PAX\u00a0<\/a>today! \u00a0Click here<\/a> to follow PAX on Facebook.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Air Canada is reportedly close to an agreement that would see Blackstone Inc. acquire a minority stake in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":854366,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[49,48,44],"class_list":["post-854365","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-canada","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/854365","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=854365"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/854365\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/854366"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=854365"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=854365"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=854365"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}