Aimia CEO says legal fight with shareholder no barrier to strategy

MONTREAL — The head of Aimia Inc. says its legal battle against its largest shareholder has not hampered the loyalty company’s hunt for bolt-on acquisitions as it charts a new course after the sale of its Aeroplan business.

“We continue to be focused on executing M&A strategy. We’ve seen robust deal flow since we announced the strategy. We continue to see that,” said chief executive Jeremy Rabe on a conference call with analysts, responding to a question about whether Aimia plans had “been impacted by the noise that led to the lawsuit.”

Last month the company filed a statement of claim against Mittleman Brothers LLC, which owns 23.3 per cent of Aimia shares, accusing the dissident investor of violating a contracted truce, the latest move in a battle over control of the company’s board of directors. Aimia says Mittleman continued to push for radical change at the company throughout the truce and tried to orchestrate a covert campaign encouraging other shareholders to withhold their support for Aimia’s nominees at the 2019 annual meeting.

Those board members backed a strategy to buy up loyalty analytics firms with the windfall from the $516-million sale of Aimia’s flagship Aeroplan program to Air Canada earlier this year.

“While it’s too early to say whether any of these targets will make it through the robust capital allocation process that we’ve established, we are in active discussions with a number of potential companies,” Rabe said.

Christopher Mittleman, Mittleman Brothers’ chief investment officer, has said the legal claims are baseless.

Last quarter, Aimia signed a contract to deploy its loyalty program at Iso, an Asian retailer that operates supermarkets and health and home furnishing stores. Aimia also inked consulting and analytics contracts in Australia with a spa company and a fashion retailer.