Quebec billionaire Pierre Karl Peladeau. — Bloomberg
MONTREAL: Quebec billionaire Pierre Karl Peladeau says he is not giving up his long pursuit of Transat AT Inc, arguing the travel company’s latest balance-sheet manoeuvres still leave it with too much debt.
“It’s not over until it’s over,” Peladeau said in an interview with Bloomberg News.
“The company will require another restructuring.
“They cannot live with that, or if they live with that, they will be impaired in their capacity to develop the business.”
Peladeau’s interest in owning Transat goes back many years.
He mulled a bid when the company was in play in 2019, but the board eventually agreed to an offer of C$18 a share from Air Canada.
The Covid-19 pandemic struck before the transaction closed, and it was scuttled altogether in 2021. Peladeau has made a number of attempts to buy the company since.
Last month he offered C$2.64 a share, which was rejected.
Transat, a Montreal-based company that owns Air Transat, has grappled with an overwhelming debt incurred during the pandemic, when it had to get emergency funding from the Canadian government.
Last month, the government agreed to reduce that debt by around C$440mil. — Bloomberg
