The Globe and Mail reports in its Wednesday edition that Air Canada is selling a 25-per-cent stake in its Aeroplan loyalty program for $2.5-billion to Blackstone and a group of Canadian pension funds, bolstering the airline's balance sheet by allowing it to pay down debt. The Globe's James Bradshaw writes that Blackstone and Quebec's Caisse pension fund are leading the deal, which values the program at $10-billion. Other investors include the Public Sector Pension Investment Board and B.C. Investment Management Corp. Air Canada is keeping control of Aeroplan's day-to-day management and plans to use proceeds from the sale to repay $1.7-billion of bonds that will soon mature, and to buy back $800-million in shares through a tender offer to shareholders in September. The transaction is expected to close on Aug. 17, and from five to eight years from that date Air Canada will have the right to buy back the investor group's minority stake. The deal assigns a value to the Aeroplan program, which gives travel and merchandise rewards to more than 10 million active members, that exceeds Air Canada's total market capitalization, which ended Tuesday at $7.4-billion. It also keeps the program under Canadian control.