TRANSAT WILL NEED MORE THAN 1 WHITE KNIGHT1. Mr. Pladeau owns approximately 600,000 TRZ shares, so he wont let the company file under the CCAA (Companies Creditors Arrangement Act) and be wiped out.
2. He will not alone have the ability to fork out $500M to bail out TRANSAT, therefore unable to become TRANSAT principal shareholder. A likely partner is the Quebec Pension Fund (CDPQ) also a TRANSAT shareholder. Jointly, they could raise $500M.
3. A $500M debt-issuing to bail out TRANSAT will normally take place under a loan agreement, rather than by issuing shares, for example 100 million shares at $5.00, the minimum threshold acceptable in order not to cause a major dilution to TRANSAT share float.
4. It will be challenging to see if Mr. Pladeau or other white knights will want to keep TRANSAT a public company or to make it go private? If they decide to leave it a public company, they wont have to buy out minority shareholders at this point in time. If, however, they decide to make it go private, then it willl be challenging to see if Mr. Pladeau proposed $5.00 offer will still hold or if he and other partners will attempt to buy minority shareholders for peanuts?
5. TRANSAT will no doubt remain a Quebec-based airline company.