{"id":638421,"date":"2026-08-15T09:48:49","date_gmt":"2026-08-15T09:48:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/638421\/"},"modified":"2026-08-15T09:48:49","modified_gmt":"2026-08-15T09:48:49","slug":"air-canada-sells-25-aeroplan-stake-for-ca2-5bn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/638421\/","title":{"rendered":"Air Canada sells 25% Aeroplan stake for CA$2.5bn"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.aircanada.com\/ca\/en\/aco\/home\/about\/corporate-profile.html#\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Air Canada<\/a> has announced a CA$2.5bn minority equity investment in Aeroplan from funds managed by Blackstone and La Caisse, alongside other Canadian institutional investors.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Under the transaction, the investor group will acquire a 25% non-controlling stake in Aeroplan, valuing the loyalty programme at CA$10bn.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Air Canada will retain a controlling ownership interest and full operational control of Aeroplan. The airline said Aeroplan remains a core part of its commercial strategy and that the transaction will not affect members, partners or employees.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Proceeds from the investment will be used in part to repay Air Canada\u2019s upcoming CA$1.7bn bond maturity. The airline said this will strengthen its balance sheet by reducing gross debt without a corresponding reduction in cash and cash equivalents.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Most of the remaining proceeds will be used to accelerate share repurchases contemplated under Air Canada\u2019s long-term strategic plan.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The investor group, led by Blackstone and La Caisse, also includes PSP Investments and British Columbia Investment Management Corporation (BCI).<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThis investment highlights Aeroplan as a differentiated loyalty platform and showcases the exceptional value created since its acquisition,\u201d said John Di Bert, Air Canada Executive Vice-President and CFO.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe transaction strengthens Air Canada\u2019s financial position by unlocking value from Aeroplan while retaining full operational control. It provides additional financial flexibility, and supports our pursuit of an investment-grade rating, as we execute our long-term strategic plan.\u201d (US$1.00 = CA$1.39 at time of publication).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Air Canada has announced a CA$2.5bn minority equity investment in Aeroplan from funds managed by Blackstone and La&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":638422,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[177],"tags":[160199,79,18,19,17,234,235],"class_list":["post-638421","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-personal-finance","tag-air-canada","tag-business","tag-eire","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-personal-finance","tag-personalfinance"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/117098903301731539","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/638421","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=638421"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/638421\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/638422"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=638421"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=638421"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=638421"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}