TORONTO, May 26, 2016 /CNW/ - Royal Bank of Canada ("RY" on TSX and NYSE) today announced
its intention, subject to the approval of the Office of the
Superintendent of Financial Institutions ("OSFI") and the Toronto
Stock Exchange, to commence a normal course issuer bid through the
facilities of the Toronto Stock Exchange and to repurchase for
cancellation up to 20 million of its common shares, representing
approximately 1.3 per cent of the bank's outstanding common shares
as at May 20, 2016. On May 20, 2016, there were 1,488,261,713 common
shares outstanding. The bank intends to file a notice of intention
with the Toronto Stock Exchange in this regard.
Purchases may commence on or around June
1, 2016, provided the Toronto Stock Exchange has accepted
the notice of intention, and may continue until on or around
May 31, 2017. Purchases may be made
through the Toronto Stock Exchange, the New York Stock Exchange and
other designated exchanges and alternative Canadian trading
systems. The price paid for any repurchased shares will be the
prevailing market price at the time of acquisition.
The proposed normal course issuer bid will give us the
flexibility to manage the Bank's capital position while generating
shareholder value. On April 30,
2016, the bank's Common Equity Tier 1, Tier 1 and Total
capital ratios were 10.3 per cent, 11.9 per cent and 14.0 per cent,
respectively.
Caution regarding forward-looking statements
Certain statements contained in this press release may be deemed
to be forward-looking statements within the meaning of certain
securities laws, including the "safe harbour" provisions of the
United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of
1995 and any applicable Canadian securities legislation. These
forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to,
statements with respect to the proposed normal course issuer bid by
Royal Bank of Canada.
Forward-looking statements are typically identified by words such
as "believe", "expect", "foresee", "forecast", "anticipate",
"intend", "estimate", "goal", "plan" and "project" and similar
expressions of future or conditional verbs such as "will", "may",
"should", "could" or "would".
By their very nature, forward-looking statements require us to
make assumptions and are subject to inherent risks and
uncertainties, which give rise to the possibility that our
predictions, forecasts, projections, expectations or conclusions
will not prove to be accurate, that our assumptions may not be
correct and that our forward-looking statements, including
statements about the proposed normal course issuer bid by Royal
Bank of Canada, will not be
achieved. We caution readers not to place undue reliance on these
statements as a number of risk factors could cause our actual
results to differ materially from the expectations expressed in
such forward-looking statements. These factors – many of which are
beyond our control and the effects of which can be difficult to
predict – include: credit, market, liquidity and funding,
insurance, operational, regulatory compliance, strategic,
reputation, legal and regulatory environment, competitive and
systemic risks other risks discussed in the Risk management and
Overview of other risks sections of our 2015 Annual Report and the
Risk management section of our Q2 2016 Report to Shareholders; weak
oil and gas prices; the high levels of Canadian household debt;
exposure to more volatile sectors, such as lending related to
commercial real estate and leveraged financing; cyber security;
anti-money laundering; the business and economic conditions in
Canada, the United States and certain other countries
in which we operate; the effects of changes in government fiscal,
monetary and other policies; tax risk and transparency and
environmental risk.
We caution that the foregoing list of risk factors is not
exhaustive and other factors could also adversely affect our
results. When relying on our forward-looking statements to make
decisions with respect to us, investors and others should carefully
consider the foregoing factors and other uncertainties and
potential events. Material economic assumptions underlying the
forward looking statements contained in this press release are set
out in the Overview and outlook section and for each business
segment under the heading Outlook and priorities of our 2015 Annual
Report, as updated by the Overview section of our Q2 2016 Report to
Shareholders. Additional information about these and other factors
can be found in the Risk management and Overview of other risks
sections of our 2015 Annual Report and in the Risk management
section of our Q2 2016 Report to Shareholders. Except as required
by law, we do not undertake to update any forward-looking statement
contained in this press release.
SOURCE RBC