Aimia (specifically their preferred shares) were suggested to me a year ago as a reasonable risk/reward and a relatively high yield.
I declined. Today is the reason that I saw would likely happen.
Air Canada will be ending their business with them in 2020.
Everything in their capital structure is trading massively down – common shares are down over 50%, and preferred shares are down about 30%.
Good market timers could have bought when the margin calls were starting to flood in at around 10:00am Eastern time. The preferred shares at one point in time were down even more than the common shares.
(Update, I have included the chart of AIM.PR.A for illustration below)
I have no idea what the business prospects of Aimia is (although this news about Air Canada is VERY negative) and thus I will still not touch them.
I will, however, be a little more diligent at liquidating the meager amount of Aeroplan points I still have remaining – companies like Aimia can decrease deferred revenue liabilities by simply increasing the cost of “rewards” that their customers have already pre-paid for (can you tell what I don’t like about their business?).