Groupe Aeroplan Inc., a loyalty marketing firm that serves a multi-national market, has acquired Carlson Marketing, a US-based loyalty marketing services provider, from Carlson Companies Inc. Groupe Aeroplan paid $175.3 million for the company.
Groupe Aeroplan expects to incur one-time costs of roughly $15 million in infrastructure migration costs. The transaction is expected to formally close by early December of this year.
"This acquisition is a logical extension for our company, as we diversify our business model to include a broader range of services within the loyalty management space in the US and internationally," said Rupert Duchesne, president and CEO of Groupe Aeroplan, in a statement.
Groupe Aeroplan's businesses and Carlson Marketing will continue to operate separately and independently. Groupe Aeroplan is based in Montreal. Carlson Marketing had been based in Minneapolis, MN. Carlson Marketing's management team, which is led by president and CEO Jeff Balagna, will continue to run the operations.
In a statement, Carlson Companies president and CEO Hubert July said the sale of the marketing operations would free up resources which will be used to grow the company’s hotel, restaurant and travel businesses.
Deutsche Bank Securities Inc. and RBC Capital Markets acted as financial advisors to Groupe Aeroplan and Petsky Prunier Securities acted as financial advisor to Carlson Companies.
