MONTREAL, Oct. 21, 2014 /PRNewswire/ - CN (TSX: CNR) (NYSE:
CNI) announced today that its Board of Directors has approved a new
share repurchase program. CN believes that the repurchase of
its shares represents an appropriate and beneficial use of the
Company's funds.
Luc Jobin, CN executive vice-president and chief financial
officer, said: "Our record speaks for itself. We continue to invest
significantly in the business while maintaining a focus on
consistently enhancing shareholder returns by increasing dividends
and repurchasing shares. Since its privatization, CN has increased
its dividends per share by 16 per cent on average every year for 18
consecutive years and has created significant value for
shareholders through regular share repurchases since its first
buyback program in 2000."
Today, CN's Board of Directors authorized a new
normal-course-issuer bid to purchase, for cancellation, up to 28
million common shares, representing 3.9 per cent of the 709,302,712
common shares issued and outstanding of the Company not held by
insiders on Oct. 15, 2014. On that
date, 814,717,092 CN common shares were issued and outstanding.
The new repurchase program – starting on Oct. 24, 2014, and ending no later than
Oct. 23, 2015 – will be conducted
through a combination of discretionary transactions and automatic
repurchase plan through the facilities of the Toronto and New
York stock exchanges, or alternative trading systems, if
eligible, and will conform to their regulations. Toronto Stock
Exchange (TSX) rules will permit CN to purchase daily, through TSX
facilities, a maximum of 256,297 common shares under the Company's
new repurchase program. Purchases under the normal-course-issuer
bid will be made by means of open market transactions or such other
means as the TSX or a securities regulatory authority may permit,
including private agreements under an issuer bid exemption order
issued by securities regulatory authorities in Canada.
The price to be paid by CN for any common shares will be the
market price at the time of acquisition, plus brokerage fees, and
purchases made under an issuer bid exemption order will be at a
discount to the prevailing market price as per the terms of the
order.
CN repurchased 22.3 million common shares under its share
repurchase program announced in October
2013, at a weighted-average price of C$62.87 per share, excluding brokerage fees,
returning C$1.4 billion to
shareholders.
CN also announced today that its Board of Directors has approved
a fourth-quarter 2014 dividend on the Company's common shares
outstanding. A quarterly dividend of twenty-five cents (C$0.25) per common share will be paid on
Dec. 31, 2014, to shareholders of
record at the close of business on Dec.
10, 2014.
Forward-Looking Statements
Certain information
included in this news release constitutes "forward-looking
statements" within the meaning of the United States Private
Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and under Canadian
securities laws, including potential purchases of common shares for
cancellation under a normal-course-issuer bid. CN cautions that, by
their nature, these forward-looking statements involve risk,
uncertainties and assumptions, and are subject to the discretion of
CN's Board of Directors in respect of the declaration of dividends.
The Company cautions that its assumptions may not materialize and
that the current economic conditions render such assumptions,
although reasonable at the time they were made, subject to greater
uncertainty.
Important risk factors that could affect the above
forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, the
effects of general economic and business conditions, industry
competition, inflation, currency and interest rate fluctuations,
changes in fuel prices, legislative and/or regulatory developments,
compliance with environmental laws and regulations, actions by
regulators, various events which could disrupt operations,
including natural events such as severe weather, droughts, floods
and earthquakes, labor negotiations and disruptions, environmental
claims, uncertainties of investigations, proceedings or other types
of claims and litigation, risks and liabilities arising from
derailments, and other risks and assumptions detailed from time to
time in reports filed by CN with securities regulators in
Canada and the United
States. Reference should be made to "Management's Discussion
and Analysis" in CN's annual and interim reports, Annual
Information Form and Form 40-F filed with Canadian and U.S.
securities regulators, available on CN's website, for a summary of
major risks and assumptions.
CN assumes no obligation to update or revise forward-looking
statements to reflect future events, changes in circumstances, or
changes in beliefs, unless required by applicable Canadian
securities laws. In the event CN does update any forward-looking
statement, no inference should be made that CN will make additional
updates with respect to that statement, related matters, or any
other forward-looking statement.
CN is a true backbone of the economy, transporting approximately
C$250 billion worth of goods annually
for a wide range of business sectors, ranging from resource
products to manufactured products to consumer goods, across a rail
network spanning Canada and
mid-America. CN – Canadian National Railway Company, along with its
operating railway subsidiaries -- serves the cities and ports of
Vancouver, Prince Rupert, B.C., Montreal, Halifax, New
Orleans, and Mobile, Ala.,
and the metropolitan areas of Toronto, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Calgary, Chicago, Memphis, Detroit, Duluth,
Minn./Superior, Wis., and
Jackson, Miss., with connections
to all points in North America.
For more information on CN, visit the company's website at
www.cn.ca.
SOURCE CN