Blackstone Inc. and a group of Canadian pension funds are buying a 25% stake in Air Canada’s Aeroplan loyalty program for C$2.5 billion ($1.8 billion).
Other investors in the group include three large Canadian asset managers — the Caisse de Depot et Placement du Quebec, PSP Investments and British Columbia Investment Management Corp., the airline announced Tuesday.
The announcement confirmed an earlier Bloomberg News report. The deal puts a value of C$10 billion on the Aeroplan business, about C$2.4 billion more than Air Canada’s stock market capitalization.
Shares of Air Canada rose about 6% on Tuesday to their highest level since 2021 after the initial Bloomberg story was published.
Analysts were impressed by the deal terms. Air Canada made “few, if any, major concessions” to the investor group, Stifel analyst Daryl Young said in a note to clients. Air Canada will retain control of Aeroplan and will have the right to repurchase the 25% stake between the fifth and eighth anniversaries of the deal’s closing. For Blackstone and the pensions, the upside is capped at an internal rate of return of 6.5%.
