MONTRÉAL, Aug. 8, 2019 – Group Mach Acquisition Inc. (“Mach” or the “Offeror“), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Group Mach Inc., today responded to the adoption of abusive defensive tactics and misleading statements by Transat A.T. Inc. (TSX: TRZ (“Transat“) in a desperate and misguided effort to prevent Transat’s shareholders from accepting Mach’s full and fair August 2, 2019 offer to purchase not less than 6,900,000 Class B Voting Shares of Transat (the “Shares“), representing approximately 19.5% of the issued and outstanding Shares, at a price of $14.00 per Share (the “Offer“). Instead, Transat is seeking to coerce its shareholders into an undervalued plan of arrangement with Air Canada that carries significant regulatory risk and for which holders of Voting Shares will not receive any cash consideration prior to early 2020 and possibly not until after the outside closing date of June 27, 2020 (the “Proposed Arrangement“). By contrast, the Offer represents an approximately 21% premium to the $11.55 closing price of the Shares on the TSX on Thursday, August 1, 2019, and a premium of $1.00 per Share, or 8%, more than the $13.00 per Voting Share offered under the Proposed Arrangement. The Offer also provides nearer-term liquidity than the Proposed Arrangement, as Shares will be taken up and paid for under the Offer within three business days of August 23, 2019 (assuming the conditions of the Offer are met or waived).
