Air Canada said Cerberus Capital Management LP made a second offer for a stake in the insolvent airline, two weeks after losing out to a bid from a son of Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing.

　　The airline didn't elaborate, and spokeswoman Isabelle Arthur declined to comment.

　　Victor Li, son of Asia's richest businessman, agreed on November 9 to pay C million (US million) for 31 percent of the Montreal-based firm. Air Canada carries more than half the country's air passengers, even after losing customers to fliers such as WestJet Airlines Ltd and filing for protection from creditors on April 1 with debt and aircraft leases of more than C billion.

　　"I don't think (the Cerberus bid) has a big shot of succeeding," Karl Moore, a business professor at Montreal's McGill University who specializes in the airline industry, said. "There's a point if they doubled the money or something dramatic, had substantially more money, the monitor would have to consider it."

　　Ernst & Young, Air Canada's court-appointed monitor, will respond to the proposal in a report to the Ontario judge overseeing the airline's restructuring, spokesman Steven Heipel said. He wouldn't discuss the content of the offer.

　　Victor Li's company, Trinity Time Investments Inc, called the new bid from New York-based Cerberus "an improper interference in the Air Canada restructuring process," in a statement e-mailed to Bloomberg News. Cerberus was asked to present its best offer, Trinity said, and "is now attempting to revise the terms of that offer selectively."

　　Cerberus referred calls to its attorney, Derrick Tay, who declined to comment.

　　Heipel said Ernst & Young hasn't determined when the report will be given to Ontario Superior Court Justice James Farley.

　　Under Victor Li's financing plan, Air Canada Chief Executive Robert Milton and Vice President Calin Rovinescu will each receive a 1 percent stake in the airline. Air Canada's creditors, with claims of C billion to C billion, would divide a 56 percent stake. Current shareholders will get 0.01 percent of the company's new stock.

　　Victor Li is a Canadian citizen. While Cerberus is based outside Canada, both the original bids met Canadian rules on foreign ownership, which limit stakes by non-Canadian investors to 25 percent, the airline has said.

　　Earlier this year, Cerberus beat Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc in the bidding for home lender Conseco Finance Inc, paying US.37 billion with three partners.