Air Canada shares go into tailspin as trading resumes Last Updated Wed, 02 Apr 2003 13:16:58 TORONTO - Shares of Air Canada (TSX:AC) plunged at the opening on Wednesday= =20 =96 a day after the country's major airline filed for bankruptcy protection.= =20 After a trading halt on Tuesday, the stock opened at 96 cents Wednesday=20 morning. The shares quickly slid as low as 69 cents before climbing back to= =20 $1 shortly after 11 a.m. ET. The stock closed Monday at $2.10. Shares of=20 Air Canada traded at a one-year high of $8.10 in May. While Air Canada's=20 shares collapsed, WestJet's stock climbed higher. Shares of WestJet were up= =20 80 cents at $17.25. Air Canada's stock got hammered Wednesday because=20 investors in the company's shares will likely be left out of any new equity= =20 issued as part of a restructuring. The holders of Air Canada's $12 billion= =20 debt will get most, if not all, of any new shares issued. Air Canada=20 shares now have zero value, Joe D'Cruz, a professor at the University of=20 Toronto's Rotman School of Management, said in an interview with CBC=20 Radio's The Business Network. "The investors in shares of Air Canada have=20 lost everything," D'Cruz said. "It's only the debt holders who will now=20 become the new owners of Air Canada because as they renegotiate their debt,= =20 they will convert some debt into equity, and that will be the new equity in= =20 Air Canada," he added. Air Canada reassures customers Also on Wednesday, Air Canada took out newspaper advertisements seeking to= =20 reassure nervous customers that it will keep operating. "It is important=20 that you understand that we are not going out of business," the company=20 said in the ads. The airline secured $700 million US in interim financing on Tuesday so it=20 could keep operating while it restructures in the coming months. Written by CBC News Online staff *************************************************** The owner of Roger's Trinbago Site/TnTisland.com Roj (Roger James) escape email mailto:ejames@xxxxxxxxx Trinbago site: www.tntisland.com Carib Brass Ctn site www.tntisland.com/caribbeanbrassconnection/ Steel Expressions www.mts.net/~ejames/se/ Site of the Week:http://www.ttsailing.org/ TnT Webdirectory: http://search.co.tt *********************************************************