Restructuring of Chrono Aviation | Péladeau’s offer wins over Luc Poirier’s

Chrono Aviation assets will be sold to a company controlled by Pierre Karl Péladeau, the Superior Court of Quebec rules. The last minute offer from entrepreneur and investor Luc Poirier was simply “inadmissible”.

Made Monday, this decision by Judge Jacques G. Bouchard should allow the Quebec charter flight specialist to emerge from insolvency in addition to returning 37 million to its secured creditors, a group which includes Investissement Québec (IQ), the investing arm of the Quebec state.

“The transaction as proposed appears necessary, reasonable and fully justified in the circumstances,” wrote the magistrate in a 28-page decision.

Under the protection of the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act (LACC) since October 18, Chrono wishes to sell its private terminal at Montreal Airport, located in the borough of Saint-Hubert, in Longueuil, to Starlink Aviation.

Controlled by Mr. Péladeau, this company already operates a private terminal on Ryan Avenue, at the eastern end of the Montreal-Trudeau airport grounds. Its services are especially popular with customers capable of paying rates of several thousand dollars per hour to travel by private jet.

In addition to the mainland, Starlink will now be well established in the southern suburbs of the mainland with another private terminal. This transaction was recommended by controller Deloitte and supported by Chrono’s secured creditors, including National Bank.

Dismissed protesters

The plan, however, did not suit Chrono’s minority shareholders since they will be left out of the picture, which will cause them to lose money. They also hold unsecured claims of around 5.2 million.

They asked the court to take a little more time to allow Mr. Poirier’s group to be heard. According to them, the process led by Deloitte was “fictitious”, therefore only aimed to favor Starlink, and other “serious” offers were not considered.

Judge Bouchard does not subscribe to this theory. In fact, the magistrate believes that this common front of the protesters was only a strategy to remain a shareholder of Chrono at the end of the judicial restructuring.

“Clearly, this is an aim considered illegitimate by the case law on the subject,” said the magistrate. Once sifted by the evidence, the accusatory, even tendentious, allegations raised by the protest are completely destroyed. »

In interview with The Presson October 28, Luc Poirier said he had offered 30 million to acquire only Chrono’s buildings in the southern suburbs of Montreal, namely the private terminal and adjoining excess land.

On October 31, the entrepreneur and his partners sent an interim financing offer of 1.5 million to the controller in order to allow the continuation of Chrono’s activities in the hope of boosting their proposal.

In return, Mr. Poirier’s group wanted to move ahead of the secured creditors on the priority list.

“As for the late proposal for temporary financing sent to the controller […] this is inadmissible, asserts Judge Bouchard. In any case, it appears that it would clearly not receive the approval of the secured creditors since the latter would obviously not agree to cede their priority ranking, as required. »

Among the debts that Starlink’s offer will honor is a debt of 5.2 million to the Business Development Bank of Canada and another of 4.5 million to IQ. The Quebec state-owned company, however, risks losing more than 5 million in debentures – debt securities that were only partially guaranteed.

With information from Hugo Joncas, The Press