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Gold/Mining/Energy : Air Canada is taking off? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Greg Spendjian who wrote (817)	9/9/1999 2:36:00 PM
From: D.M.	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1033

Yahoo! Canada News Business Headlines Thursday September 9 12:13 PM ET Air Canada Pilots Oppose Hostile Onex Takeover Bid TORONTO (Reuters) - Pilots at Air Canada said Thursday that they have not ruled out taking a bigger equity stake in the nation's biggest airline to avoid a hostile takeover by conglomerate Onex Corp. . The pilots also said they had hired a financial adviser specializing in employee buyout offers. Onex plans to buy Air Canada, merge it with ailing rival Canadian Airlines Corp. and cut some staff, with the backing of American Airlines parent AMR Corp. (NYSE:AAR - news) . ``We have put on retainer Keilin & Co. ... a group of legal advisers and investment bankers that were key to the successful, largest employee stock ownership plan and employee takeover bids, not only in Canada, but in the United States and in Europe as well,' Jean-Marc Belanger, head of the Air Canada Pilots Association, which represents the carrier's 2,100 pilots, told reporters at a press conference. Belanger blasted the Canadian government's ``silence' on the Onex plan and demanded that Parliament be recalled quickly to debate the issue. He said a merger of financially robust Air Canada and struggling Canadian would result in twice the 5,000 job cuts forecast by Onex and saddle the merged airline with an onerous debt burden. ``We believe that the highly leveraged debt-laden company that would result from the merger would not be economically viable in the long run,' Belanger said. He said the association was looking at all options, would not rule out greater employee equity participation in Air Canada, and was seeking to form a common front with the carrier's other big unions. The airline's employees currently own about 4 percent of its stock. Air Canada shares surged 75 Canadian cents to C$10.40 on the Toronto Stock Exchange Thursday on expectations a bid higher than the C$8.25-a-share offer by Onex will emerge. ($1-1.49 Canadian)