Aimia gets record profit after selling Aeroplan

Aimia Inc. is seeking to seize on targeted advertising trends and buy up smaller rewards firms in order to reach adjusted profitability in 2020 as it looks to the future without the Aeroplan loyalty program.

Rife with cash from the program’s sale to Air Canada in January, the company’s expressed confidence in future earnings due to the global potential of rewards programs and in spite of the recent loss of “a bunch of contracts” from Fortune 500 companies, chief executive Jeremy Rabe said.

“Longer term, this is an industry that’s growing at over 20 per cent per year ... and expected to continue,” Rabe said on a conference call with investors Tuesday.

The shift away from mass media advertising and toward “more direct, targeted, personalized marketing methods” online bodes well for loyalty solutions companies such as Aimia, he said.

“Companies, I think, realize that it may not make sense for them to develop their own technology,” Rabe added. “That’s where we’re also seeing a strong appetite for outsourcing.”

Some analysts wondered whether Aimia’s goal of merely tipping adjusted earnings back into the black next year was suitably aggressive.

The Montreal-based company reported a record profit of $1.05 billion in its latest quarter as it completed the sale of its Aeroplan business.

Revenue fell to $34.7 million compared with $45 million in the first three months of 2018.