Air Canada's Parent Sells Part of Its Stake in US Airways for $67.5 Mllion

MONTREAL - Air Canada's corporate parent (TSX:ACE.B) has agreed to sell 1.75 million shares in US Airways Group Inc., about 35 per cent of its stake in the American carrier, and will receive about $67.55 million US from the deal.

The purchaser is PAR Investment Partners LP, a Boston-based private investment fund,

ACE Aviation said it will continue to own 3.25 million shares in US Airways Group, has a total market capitalization of about $3 billion. Its shares (NYSE:LCC) closed Monday at $37.92, down $1.73 or 4.4 per cent, in New York.

The Canadian airline holding company, which wholly owns the country's largest airline Air Canada as well as majority stakes in its Jazz Air regional affiliate and the Aeroplan loyalty program, said it will have recouped most of the $75 million that it invested in US Airways while retaining most of the shares it purchased.

"Our investment in US Airways has proven to be highly successful," said Robert Milton, said Robert Milton, Ace Aviation's chairman, president and chief executive.

ACE said the commercial arrangements between US Airways and Air Canada Technical Services, another wholly owned subsidiary of ACE, will continue.

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