Here are five things you need to know this morning:
Court rules in favour of former Air Canada workers: Air Canada may be forced to pay $100 million to about 2,200 of its former workers after a Quebec court issued a ruling in their class action against the airline. The amount would cover lost wages, benefits and “moral damages” related to the shuttering of Aveos, the carrier’s former maintenance contractor. The plaintiffs were Aveos employees when the airline locked out workers and ceased operations in 2012. The former workers argue the airline was in violation of a federal law requiring them to maintain certain maintenance operations when they did that. Lawyers for the former workers said the minimum damages in the case could be $100 million but the airline says it’s too soon to attach a dollar figure to the case as claims will be handled on a case-by-case basis. The airline stresses it is appealing the decision to begin with.
National Bank planning another $20M equity raise to finance CWB takeover: National Bank is raising an additional $20 million worth of equity in connection to its $5 billion takeover of Canadian Western Bank. When the takeover deal was announced last month, National said it planned to issue about $1 billion of new equity to finance the all-stock deal, with half of that coming via private placement with Quebec pension fund, the Caisse. The rest was done via a bought-deal subscription receipt that closed in June and now National is planning on selling an additional 178,000 receipts at $112.30 because the initial deal saw strong demand. The deal is likely to be announced today, Bloomberg reports, citing unnamed sources.
J&J shares inch higher on earnings beat: Shares in Johnson & Johnson are inching higher in premarket trading this morning after the consumer products giant reported quarterly earnings before the bell; numbers that beat modest expectations. The company’s earnings per share came in at US$2.82, better than $2.71 expected, while sales hit $22.45. That was slightly ahead of the estimate of $22.32 billion. The company said it’s facing increasing costs this year, at a time when its revenue may face pressure. The company’s share price is down by about four per cent this year on concerns that its anti-inflammatory medicine Stelara will soon go off patent and face cheaper competition. Longstanding lawsuits over talc are also overhanging the company, which has proposed $6 billion to settle various cancer-related lawsuits over the powder.
Banking on grandma: A new poll by RBC suggests the Bank of Mom and Dad has started franchising, as almost one third of Canadian grandparents say they are financially supporting grandchildren. More than 20 per cent of respondents to the bank’s poll say they are financially supporting an adult child over the age of 25. That’s despite one third of them saying they are worried they will run out of money for themselves by doing so. On top of whatever amount they have given to their own children, 30 per cent of respondents said they had gifted money to help pay for living expenses to their grandchildren. The average amount is more than $4,000 and that’s over and above regular gifts such as birthdays or holidays.
Car theft is on the decline, insurance report says: After reaching crisis, there’s good news for Canadian drivers as car theft appears to be on the decline. A report by Équité Association, a non-profit insurance crime and fraud prevention group, says that auto theft is down by 17 per cent in the first half of this year compared to the same period in 2023. The group tabulates that theft fell by 36 per cent in Quebec, and 14 per cent in Ontario. In Alberta theft fell by five per cent. The group credits efforts by the industry, as well as government efforts to crack down on the border to disrupt the flow of organized crime. But there’s one place where theft seems to be on the rise. In Atlantic Canada, car theft is up by 11 per cent this year. The group says that could be because neighbouring regions are having success limiting thefts, forcing thieves to go elsewhere. More than 28,000 cars have been stolen so far this year. That’s about 150 a day or more than six every hour.
