A union representative called Bombardier’s sale of its remaining shares in the A220 commercial jet program — formerly known as the C Series — “the best-case scenario,” while an aerospace expert said it’s a “sad” day for Quebec.
The company announced the move late Wednesday night, and politicians and stakeholders weighed in on Thursday.
Quebec Economy Minister Pierre Fitzgibbon says the sale will mean more production and more jobs for the province.
“Our business is to make sure we create good jobs,” Fitzgibbon said, saying that he still sees potential in Bombardier’s contribution to Quebec’s economy.
“I’m convinced the engineering of Bombardier … will contribute to economic growth in Quebec.”
David Chartrand, the representative for Quebec‘s division of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, says he’s satisfied Airbus and its subsidiary Stelia intend to keep jobs in Quebec.
The deal calls for the jobs of 360 people who construct the plane’s cockpits at the plant in the Montreal borough of Ville St-Laurent to be guaranteed for three years. After that, they will be transferred to Mirabel.
Quebec Economy Minister Pierre Fitzgibbon says the sale will mean more production and more jobs. (Sylvain Roy Roussel/Radio-Canada)
“Priority number one, absolutely, was to keep those jobs here in Quebec and make sure … our members continue to benefit from those jobs,” Chartrand said.
He said he’s confident the jobs are safe as long as Airbus continues to sell airplanes, and that Airbus and Stelia assured him the union’s collective agreement will remain in place.
Deal secures 3,300 Quebec jobs, Airbus says
Bombardier has been reorganizing its business to try and pay off a multibillion-dollar deficit.
The union is in discussions to ensure the same work conditions for the more than 360 workers at the plant in Ville St-Laurent, Chartrand says.
Airbus says the deal secures 3,300 jobs in Quebec.
Under the deal, Airbus will hold a 75 per cent stake in the commercial jet program. The Quebec government will have 25 per cent.
Quebec Premier François Legault said he’s satisfied they were able to reach this agreement.
Bombardier released its latest financial statement Thursday. The company incurred losses of $1.6 billion US, or close to $2.3 billion Cdn, in the last quarter.
‘We’re not putting in any more money’: Quebec premier
Legault criticized the former Liberal government’s $1.3 billion investment in the C Series in 2016. Sales of the planes were initially slow, leading Bombardier to sell a controlling stake of the program to Airbus in 2018 for $1.
While A220 orders have since started rolling in, Bombardier would need to inject more money into the program to ramp up production.
“It’s the old government that made a bad financial transaction to put $1.3 billion of our money not into the Bombardier group, but only in one division of it,” Legault said at the National Assembly Thursday.
“We’re not putting in any more money.”
Pierre Arcand, interim leader of the Quebec Liberal Party, said his government invested in the C Series to protect tens of thousands of jobs in the Montreal area.
“We see the sales of those planes are increasing. We’ll see in the future what is the value of that 25 per cent,” Arcand said, adding that Legault’s challenge will be to ensure the jobs remain in the province.
Isabelle Dostaler, dean of the faculty of business administration at Memorial University of Newfoundland whose research focuses on aerospace and aviation management, said it’s a sad day for Quebec.
“To think that our country developed the most advanced civil aircraft and that we’re not able to sell it ourselves, it’s really really, really sad,” Dostaler told CBC Daybreak‘s Mike Finnerty.
She said if she were the premier, she wouldn’t diminish the province’s participation in the A220 program.
“I think whoever owns that aircraft, and that’s now going to be Airbus, they’re going to make a lot of money.”
TOKYO (AP) — Japanese technology group SoftBank swung back to profitability in the July-September quarter, boosted by positive results in its Vision Fund investments.
Tokyo-based SoftBank Group Corp. reported Tuesday a fiscal second quarter profit of nearly 1.18 trillion yen ($7.7 billion), compared with a 931 billion yen loss in the year-earlier period.
Quarterly sales edged up about 6% to nearly 1.77 trillion yen ($11.5 billion).
SoftBank credited income from royalties and licensing related to its holdings in Arm, a computer chip-designing company, whose business spans smartphones, data centers, networking equipment, automotive, consumer electronic devices, and AI applications.
The results were also helped by the absence of losses related to SoftBank’s investment in office-space sharing venture WeWork, which hit the previous fiscal year.
WeWork, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2023, emerged from Chapter 11 in June.
SoftBank has benefitted in recent months from rising share prices in some investment, such as U.S.-based e-commerce company Coupang, Chinese mobility provider DiDi Global and Bytedance, the Chinese developer of TikTok.
SoftBank’s financial results tend to swing wildly, partly because of its sprawling investment portfolio that includes search engine Yahoo, Chinese retailer Alibaba, and artificial intelligence company Nvidia.
SoftBank makes investments in a variety of companies that it groups together in a series of Vision Funds.
The company’s founder, Masayoshi Son, is a pioneer in technology investment in Japan. SoftBank Group does not give earnings forecasts.
Shopify Inc. executives brushed off concerns that incoming U.S. President Donald Trump will be a major detriment to many of the company’s merchants.
“There’s nothing in what we’ve heard from Trump, nor would there have been anything from (Democratic candidate) Kamala (Harris), which we think impacts the overall state of new business formation and entrepreneurship,” Shopify’s chief financial officer Jeff Hoffmeister told analysts on a call Tuesday.
“We still feel really good about all the merchants out there, all the entrepreneurs that want to start new businesses and that’s obviously not going to change with the administration.”
Hoffmeister’s comments come a week after Trump, a Republican businessman, trounced Harris in an election that will soon return him to the Oval Office.
On the campaign trail, he threatened to impose tariffs of 60 per cent on imports from China and roughly 10 per cent to 20 per cent on goods from all other countries.
If the president-elect makes good on the promise, many worry the cost of operating will soar for companies, including customers of Shopify, which sells e-commerce software to small businesses but also brands as big as Kylie Cosmetics and Victoria’s Secret.
These merchants may feel they have no choice but to pass on the increases to customers, perhaps sparking more inflation.
If Trump’s tariffs do come to fruition, Shopify’s president Harley Finkelstein pointed out China is “not a huge area” for Shopify.
However, “we can’t anticipate what every presidential administration is going to do,” he cautioned.
He likened the uncertainty facing the business community to the COVID-19 pandemic where Shopify had to help companies migrate online.
“Our job is no matter what comes the way of our merchants, we provide them with tools and service and support for them to navigate it really well,” he said.
Finkelstein was questioned about the forthcoming U.S. leadership change on a call meant to delve into Shopify’s latest earnings, which sent shares soaring 27 per cent to $158.63 shortly after Tuesday’s market open.
The Ottawa-based company, which keeps its books in U.S. dollars, reported US$828 million in net income for its third quarter, up from US$718 million in the same quarter last year, as its revenue rose 26 per cent.
Revenue for the period ended Sept. 30 totalled US$2.16 billion, up from US$1.71 billion a year earlier.
Subscription solutions revenue reached US$610 million, up from US$486 million in the same quarter last year.
Merchant solutions revenue amounted to US$1.55 billion, up from US$1.23 billion.
Shopify’s net income excluding the impact of equity investments totalled US$344 million for the quarter, up from US$173 million in the same quarter last year.
Daniel Chan, a TD Cowen analyst, said the results show Shopify has a leadership position in the e-commerce world and “a continued ability to gain market share.”
In its outlook for its fourth quarter of 2024, the company said it expects revenue to grow at a mid-to-high-twenties percentage rate on a year-over-year basis.
“Q4 guidance suggests Shopify will finish the year strong, with better-than-expected revenue growth and operating margin,” Chan pointed out in a note to investors.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 12, 2024.
TORONTO – RioCan Real Estate Investment Trust says it has cut almost 10 per cent of its staff as it deals with a slowdown in the condo market and overall pushes for greater efficiency.
The company says the cuts, which amount to around 60 employees based on its last annual filing, will mean about $9 million in restructuring charges and should translate to about $8 million in annualized cash savings.
The job cuts come as RioCan and others scale back condo development plans as the market softens, but chief executive Jonathan Gitlin says the reductions were from a companywide efficiency effort.
RioCan says it doesn’t plan to start any new construction of mixed-use properties this year and well into 2025 as it adjusts to the shifting market demand.
The company reported a net income of $96.9 million in the third quarter, up from a loss of $73.5 million last year, as it saw a $159 million boost from a favourable change in the fair value of investment properties.
RioCan reported what it says is a record-breaking 97.8 per cent occupancy rate in the quarter including retail committed occupancy of 98.6 per cent.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 12, 2024.
