I have been hearing that there is great uncertainty in Vancouver about what is going to happen. None of it has been particularly good to date, and none of it looks to be much better for the future.
The new owners do not appear to be very happy about the entire Nigerian situation that they have found on their hands. They are not in a position to negotiate but they are certainly in a position to lose everything that was ever put into that "god-forsaken country" !
So the new owners have found themselves with a mountain of debt and unpaid bills in Nigeria. They have come to the realization that many of the parts of the organization they bought, have no value - reference the past lay-offs at Heli-One and the second round that is rumoured about to hit any day now. They have already been removing senior Heli-One management in YVR, not to mention shutting it down everywhere else! There is apparently grave concern over the internal operational cost structure as a result of move to YVR in the first place. Lots of old helicopters and surplus parts for sale that no-one wants to buy in this market - and the value on the street for these items is quite a bit different today than the book value at the time of purchase!
So what next? There seem to be more nervous employees than confident ones and everyone seems to have come to the conclusion that the end of the gravy train is here, so get ready to face the outside world. There is much talk about the poor pay-offs some long time employees received and this is causing even greater concern - the pay-out was always considered a lottery bonus, not anymore it seems! The general consensus around the company appears to be that it is about to get a whole lot worse.