November 20, 2018 - by Sylvain Faust for Fliegerfaust

*Isabelle Dostaler is Dean of the Faculty of Business Administration at Memorial University of Newfoundland and formerly Professor, Department of Management at Concordia University / John Molson School of Business, Montreal"

What a saga at Bombardier Inc. Here's an article I wrote almost two (2) years ago regarding who decides at company board of directors.I strongly suggest you look at it again.

With less than 18% of the company ownership the Bombardier/Beaudoin family controls overs 50% of the vote, totally controlling it. 82% of the owners have no say, no say also on who gets elected on the management board since the family has the majority control on is elected.

This sounds like a "Totalitarian Regime". A minority shareholder (17%) having total control over the majority (83%). Shareholders have a large tendency not to say anything when such a company is doing well but suddenly wake up when they see the company doing badly, going from bad to worst and in the case of Bombardier, almost going bankrupt. (In such event, BRP would have bought it back for cheap don't you think? And who owns BRP? The Bombardier/Beaudoin family)

How can we allow this? : The dual class shares and it is still legal and your investment broker was happy to sell you those shares, making their commission, all backed with one of their own perfectly fine analyst report, right? https://www.investopedia.com/terms/d/dualclassstock.asp

This alone puts a huge discount on the value of the company, the value of its shares.

The day the "despotic" authorities the Bombardier/Beaudoin family exercise on the direction of the company will cease to exist is also a day the value of the company will increase.

Why? "The Business" will be the priority instead of the current priority #1 of the family.Fancy investors do notice.

Ah, you don't know what is the Bombardier/Beaudoin Priority #1? It has nothing to do with running a business! Scary if you are a one of those shareholders owning 82% of Bombardier Inc.

But, what could it be? Like any Monarch, the Bombardier/Beaudoin priority #1 is "NOT TO LOSE THEIR TOTAL CONTROL ON THE COMPANY" as a family member "candidly" said " the key is keeping control of the company and passing it on to the next generation…" If you're a shareholder, this is scary… maybe you are better looking elsewhere for your investment until this is fixed. Source: Charles Bombardier : "keeping control of the company..."

You also want to know why the company is almost no longer able to issue large amount of shares to finance itself, why it is selling its assets such as1/3 of its Transportation division?

Back to their Priority #1, doing so would dilute the ownership enough so the Bombardier/Beaudoin family would no longer be the King of the hill. You see how such priority is disturbing for the future of the company, for the 82% of the shareholders. You are not important! What's important to them is not losing total control for the company, you get that?

On top of this, when more money is necessary, on top of calling all the shots, instead of injecting more of their own money, they are asking for your money anyway, that you are a shareholder or not, yes, that's via the Governments, provincial and federal. How nice…This is what Isabelle Dostaler is referring to in the title of this article and the video below. You want total control? Start by having the majority of ownership of the company!

I suggest you read this: " Bombardier Inc - It's Real Value"

As she also says, if Pierre Beaudoin, currently Chairman of the Board at Bombardier Inc, formally CEO of the company, was to be looking for a job, with his track record, what do you think his value is... what would he be offered... ? I think you get the point.

Here's a copy and also the link below to the original version from the April 5, 2017 article on Fliegerfaust

Basically, what Isabelle Dostaler* dares to say out loud is what many people are saying very quietly (see video of a portion of her interview here)

Bombardier - Conseil d'administration www.youtube.com

What Madame Dostaler brings up are very valid points... complete interview here

https://twitter.com/AMarieDussault/status/849405154038362112

Here's what I think as well... Basically, the past few years has shown that Pierre Beaudoin should no longer be at the top management of Bombardier Inc. The current Management Board seems insidious with "yes man" and no real Bombardier Inc. owner representation, leaning to the majority vote holder on the board, scared to say otherwise too loudly, also looking at the P. Beaudoin accepted board decision to increase his compensation from $3.85 million to $5.25 million as "Chairman of the Board"... A job normally paid $200 to $300 thousand a year... especially when you have a huge share/ownership position in the company, where getting the "stock price" (market valuation of the company) UP is the way to make sure everyone is working with the same real goal with the proper "incentive", increasing the company's value, not sucking up a comfortable $ cash position...

Reality Check: https://www.fliegerfaust.com/bombardier-inc-its-re...

What seems needed, and missing still so far, is a real representation of the investors/owners, especially the large one, i.e. Government of Quebec (49% of CSeries) and La Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (30% of Bombardier Transport + Bombardier B and A shares as well) at least.

Basically, if the Bombardier/Beaudoin family with only 17% ownership of Bombardier Inc. and 51% of the vote wants to play "sorcerer's apprentice" with the company, it should be up to them to buy the majority of the asset with "their money", as she pointed out! I can't disagree!

As with Madame Dostaler and others, I've tried to explain and defend what the company does and still do, but here's a time where more structural changes are necessary, but at the real top this time… It would be good for everyone, from the employees to the shareholders, expecting sound decisions to be taken from the REAL TOP down with all the issues having be reviewed and discussed with "real representative of the ownership" of Bombardier Inc.

Sylvain Faust

*Isabelle Dostaler is Dean of the Faculty of Business Administration at Memorial University of Newfoundland and formerly Professor, Department of Management at Concordia University / John Molson School of Business, Montreal"

Link to the original April 5, 2017 article