Continental Boosts Pension Plan

Continental Airlines (CAL Quote - Cramer on CAL - Stock Picks) received $156 million from the sale of around 7.5 million Class A common shares of Copa Holdings (CPA Quote - Cramer on CPA - Stock Picks), the parent company of Copa Airlines.

After the sale, Continental will still own roughly 4.4 million Class A shares of Panama's Copa. The company is contributing $75 million of the proceeds to its pension plans, bringing its total for this year to $172 million.

Copa said last week that Continental had priced an offering of 6.56 million shares at $21.75 each. The underwriters of the stock sale had the option to buy around 984,000 additional shares to cover any overallotments.

Shares of Houston-based Continental rose 66 cents, or 2.2%, to $30.16 Wednesday. Copa lost 11 cents, or 0.5%, to $23.09.