Originally Posted by GUWonder
I'd cautiously welcome a spinoff into a publicly-traded entity if for only one reason: more transparency.
Given US securities laws are more stringent than ours, this may well be the case. I know I was disappointed by the lack of detail about the FF program's relationship with AC. All the stuff we'd like to know was covered by general sentences like "operated for Air Canada under contract" with bulk numbers provided that said nothing. As prospectuses go, the only revealing numbers were finally knowing how much Aeroplan made from selling miles to various parties [AC, STAR, banks/credit card issuers, retailers] and the "breakage" rate representing miles likely to never be used [17%].
There is a link in the main AC thread to the draft prospectus [which only changed from the final one by virtue of specifying the price and number of units on offer].
BTW the Aeroplan float was not shares of stock, but units of an income trust. 80% of the prospectus described how unit trusts operate, 20% about Aeroplan itself, and half of that about its previous history and relationship with Air Canada! For those who don't know, unit trusts pay out their "dividends" as a percentage of net income, before taxes. The tax liability is passed on to the unit owner, the investor. These are big things up here, which is also another unique reason why the US situation is not likely to replicate the success of Aeroplan [in the financial marketplace].