The Financial Post reports in its Tuesday edition that Quebec billionaire Pierre Karl Peladeau says he is not giving up his long pursuit of Transat AT, arguing the travel company's latest balance-sheet manoeuvres still leave it with too much debt. A Bloomberg dispatch to the Post quotes Mr. Peladeau saying: "It's not over until it's over. 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." Mr. 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 $18 a share from Air Canada. The COVID-19 pandemic struck before the transaction closed, and it was scuttled altogether in 2021. Mr. Peladeau has made a number of attempts to buy the company since. Last month he offered $2.64 a share, which was rejected. Transat has grappled with overwhelming debt incurred during the pandemic, when it had to get emergency funding from the federal government. Last month, the feds agreed to reduce that debt by around $440-million. The deal did not sit well with Mr. Peladeau, who owns slightly more than 9 per cent of Transat.
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