AC Transcript Q218 Copied and Pastedhttps://seekingalpha.com/article/4191422-air-canadas-acdvf-ceo-calin-rovinescu-q2-2018-results-earnings-call-transcript Calin Rovinescu Earlier this week, together with TD, CNBC, and Visa, we made a proposal to acquire Aimia's Aeroplan Business. There's a very short fuse on that proposal and I will say a few more words on it after Mike's remarks. Calin Rovinescu Thanks Mike. As most of you will have seen, on Wednesday, we, together with TD Bank, CIBC and Visa Canada, made an offer to Aimia to acquire Air Plan Loyalty business. This proposal is accepted by Aimia will ensure value and continuity for members who are our respective customers. The proposal will be for acceptance at August 2, 2018, and has a series of conditions of closing. We collectively believe this proposal is in the best interest of Aimia's common and preferred shareholders, debt holders, and aero plan members. And certainly, the market reaction following the press release would appear to confirm that. That said, we've also been working diligently on the credit card several other banks and financial institutions and at the expiry date last without the deal we have every intention of resuming our discussions to conclude a new long-term credit card arrangements in Q4 of this year, well in advance of the June 2020 launch date. Now, there have been numerous analysts and media reports following our joint press release with TD, CIBC, and Visa. And I want to amplify and underscore what we said in the release. First off, the consortium's proposal is not a hostile bid, as characterized by some. It is a proposal to Aimia's special committee and board, which they're entirely free to accept or reject based on their own risk and value investments. We chose to make our proposal public, so as to ensure transparency for all stakeholders given the numerous interests at play. Two, the proposal is for the Aeroplan's Loyalty business. It is not a bid for all of Aimia. The publicly-traded company that has other assets beside Aeroplan, has erroneously mischaracterized by one Vancouver-based analyst and some media. Three, we are one of our partners to make this proposal. Interests has vested interests, and each of whom has already paid for the Aeroplan Miles that we are about to effectively pay for the second time, for the benefit of our respective customers by assuming the redemption liability. Four, we have not abandoned our plan to launch our own loyalty plan in 2020 and if there Aeroplan require, Aeroplan Miles would simply be converted to our new program. The activation allows for a smooth transition for Aeroplan members. Five, in addition to the value we see with a smooth transition, the main benefit for the proposed acquisition for us, resides in the continuation with the two incumbent credit card providers, TD and CIBC, as well as Visa. Six, the consortium proposal is not any "steep discounts" and some have risks. It is, in fact, at a substantial premium, and extremely generous given the $2 billion unfunded redemption liability of Aeroplan, that the consortium would be accepting. We believe there is no other party out there prepared to accept the $2 billion liability, nor any other buyers for the company. Seven, the choice, the Aimia being the board has in exercising its fiduciary duty is the following; reject bid proposal and adopt a go-it-alone strategy for Aeroplan maintaining the $2 billion unfunded liability without Air Canada as a redemption partner, or accept our consortium's proportional, which looks after all of their stakeholders. Eight, our proposal expires on August 2. Why? Because if Aimia chooses not to accept it, we need to complete our process to conclude the agreement with our new credit card partner by the end of Q4. We have an active and value-enhancing process for both Air Canada and our banking partners already underway. Regardless of the we will continue to respect our contract and work with Aeroplan through the transition period and remain focused on building our own world-class program by June 2020.