Bombardier stock takes a tumble on US$492M share sale

Company looks to shore up balance sheet as it awaits approval of Airbus tie-up

Bombardier Inc. fell the most in five months after announcing a plan to sell new shares in an effort to strengthen its balance sheet.

The offering furthers Bombardier’s efforts to shore up its finances, while diluting investors who had previously been enjoying a rally as chief executive officer Alain Bellemare made headway on a five-year turnaround plan. Bombardier has about US$9.2 billion in long-term debt after investing heavily in two aircraft-development programs.

Through Monday, shares had risen 31 per cent this year. Bombardier is taking advantage of the surge to raise about $638.4 million (US$492 million) with its first stock sale in three years. Canada’s largest aerospace company is offering the shares at a 4.5 per cent discount to the closing price Monday.

“If you buy into Bombardier, one of the risks you run as an investor is that there will be events like this one that take away from the earnings,” said David Tyerman, an analyst at Cormark Securities in Toronto. “This is another step to give themselves more breathing room. Even if the plan works, and so far it’s working, they will need a long time to fix the debt situation.”

The shares ended the day at $3.77, down 5.8 per cent in Toronto after sliding as much as 9.3 per cent for the biggest intraday decline since Sept. 27.

Before the share sale plan, Bombardier had posted the second-biggest advance this year on the S&P/ TSX Composite Index.

“The improvement in the valuation of Bombardier recently may have triggered an opportunity whereby the company begins to lower financial leverage earlier while at the same time de-risking the transformation plan in the immediate term,” Fadi Chamoun, a BMO Capital Markets analyst, said in a note to clients. The stock sale represents “an insurance policy that might be worth the costs given the unpredictable nature of the aerospace segment,” he said.

Bombardier, which also makes trains, will sell 168 million of its widely traded Class B shares at $3.80 apiece, according to a statement Monday. The offering is expected to be completed by March 23.

Proceeds will be used to supplement working capital and for general corporate purposes, “thereby building further operational flexibility and re-equitizing the balance sheet,” the company said. The Montreal-based company has said it’s “well positioned” to break even on a cash-flow basis this year — a major milestone for Bellemare’s turnaround plan.