After Téo Taxi and the Montreal Alouettes, Pierre Karl Péladeau has acquired a private terminal operator. Personally, he has just purchased the private jet charter specialist Starlink Aviation, La Presse has learned. The businessman would have paid much more than his rivals to win the bet.
According to our information, obtained from four sources familiar with the matter, the controlling shareholder of Quebecor – whose fortune is estimated at 2.6 billion by Forbes magazine – had to put around 35 million on the table, far ahead of the competing offers. The highest hovered around 20 million.
This company belonged to Quebec entrepreneur and philanthropist Philippe de Gaspé Beaubien III as well as Montreal luxury clothing designer Brian Cytrynbaum. The name has nothing to do with the satellite internet service provider Starlink from the company SpaceX, founded by the famous entrepreneur Elon Musk.
“We had a good trip with Starlink, but it’s up to others to take over,” explains Mr. de Gaspé Beaubien III, reached by telephone by La Presse. We’ve been here 20 years. The company is more profitable than it has ever been. I can tell you that Pierre Karl will really get a very good deal. »
Located at the intersection of Renaud and Ryan avenues, at the eastern end of the Montreal-Trudeau airport grounds, Starlink prides itself on offering “first class and nothing else” to its clientele, made up mainly of travelers. able to pay rates of several thousand dollars an hour to travel by private jet. Rest areas, showers, on-site customs service to reduce waiting times before boarding and access to “the best catering services”: there are many services for these travelers.
“You and your passengers will receive five-star service,” reads the company’s website.
Starlink also specializes in other niches, such as aircraft management, maintenance and medical air transport. Its hangar covers an area of 85,000 square feet (7,900 square meters).
When questioned, Mr. de Gaspé Beaubien III did not comment on the sale price, citing the private nature of the transaction – Starlink is a closed-end company. Despite the growing popularity of private transportation since the start of the pandemic, the two partners decided to move on because they are involved with “other companies around the world”, explained the entrepreneur and philanthropist, by naming, among others, the Quebec company Pur Vodka.
Starlink manages about 30 planes, its co-owner says. This is a mechanism allowing private jet owners to generate income when they are not using their aircraft. Starlink customers have already been informed of the arrival of Mr. Péladeau at the helm.
This acquisition, carried out personally by the controlling shareholder of Quebecor, comes after an eventful fall at Groupe TVA, where Mr. Péladeau is president and CEO. Last November, the conglomerate announced the layoff of 547 employees within TVA Group, or nearly a third of its workforce, due to the deterioration of the finances of this Quebecor subsidiary.
Over the past 40 years, Starlink has become a “true Canadian leader in the business aviation industry,” Mr. Péladeau’s office said in a written statement, specifying that the latter was speaking in his personal name.
“The company has interesting growth potential,” it was said, without elaborating further.
Unlike Téo Taxi and the Alouettes, his last two more high-profile acquisitions, Mr. Péladeau seems to be getting his hands on a company that enjoys better financial health. On two occasions, Mr. de Gaspé Beaubien III stressed that Starlink was “very profitable”. Since it is a privately held company, its financial statements are not accessible to the general public.
In the case of Téo Taxi, the company had to be reborn from its ashes after the debacle of its initial version, when it belonged to the entrepreneur Alexandre Taillefer. As for the Alouettes, despite the recent Gray Cup triumph, the team has accumulated losses in recent years, which number in the millions. La Presse reported last March that they were between 6 and 8 million for 2022.
The purchase of Starlink allows Mr. Péladeau to realize his foray into the airline industry, but in another way. He wanted to get his hands on Transat A. T. at the time when the company had accepted an offer from Air Canada. This transaction did not materialize due to the reluctance of European trade authorities. The businessman subsequently abandoned his plan to purchase the parent company of Air Transat in May 2021.
Various sources in the Quebec aeronautics industry consulted by La Presse believe that Mr. Péladeau is getting his hands on a “good company” by purchasing Starlink. It is well established on the outskirts of Montreal-Trudeau, particularly with its hangar, at a time when the space available to build such facilities is scarce.
“It’s good news for the industry to see someone with strong backbones coming into the sector,” said one of these people.
Starlink is not the only one to offer private jet charter services in the Montreal-Trudeau area. There are other competitors, such as Aviation Etcetera, also located on Ryan Avenue. Already established in the sector, the Ontario company Skyservice had increased its footprint by getting its hands, in 2022, on a hangar on Percival-Reid Street which formerly belonged to Bombardier.