Canada's Bombardier postpones investor day as new CEO settles in

(Reuters) - Canadian plane and train manufacturer Bombardier Inc has postponed an investor day scheduled for March 11 to give its new chief executive time to go through its operations in detail, a Bombardier spokeswoman said on Thursday. Invitations for the investor day had been sent before Chief Executive Alain Bellemare joined the company last month, spokeswoman Shirley Chenier said, adding a new date hasn't yet been set. Bombardier is under pressure to bring its new CSeries jet into service after years of delays and cost overruns, and shares have dropped more than 40 percent over the last three months. In February, as it announced plans to raise new equity and debt less a few weeks after assuring investors it had enough funds to cover development costs, Bombardier shook up its leadership structure, bringing in Bellemare, a former United Technologies Corp executive. Still, the family of Bellemare's predecessor, Pierre Beaudoin, remains in control of the company, and Beaudoin himself became executive chairman when Bombardier appointed Bellemare, taking over from his father Laurent Beaudoin. On Wednesday, Qatar Airways' Chief Executive Akbar Al Baker said his company was no longer interested in the CSeries because of the delays bringing it to service. The news on the investor day was first reported by the National Post newspaper. (Reporting by Allison Martell; Editing by Bernadette Baum)