TORONTO, July 31, 2019 /CNW/ - Sun Life Financial Inc.
(the "Company") (TSX, NYSE: SLF) announced today that,
subject to the approval of the Office of the Superintendent of
Financial Institutions ("OSFI") and the Toronto Stock
Exchange (the "TSX"), it intends to launch a normal course
issuer bid to purchase for cancellation up to 15,000,000 of its
common shares (representing approximately 2.54% of the 591,038,889
common shares issued and outstanding as at June 30, 2019) (the "NCIB"). The Company
will file a notice of intention with the TSX in this regard.
The NCIB will provide the Company with the flexibility to
acquire common shares in order to return capital to shareholders as
part of its overall capital management strategy.
The NCIB is expected to commence on August 14, 2019 and continue until August 13, 2020, or such earlier date as the
Company may determine or as the Company completes its purchases
pursuant to the NCIB. Purchases under the NCIB may be made through
the facilities of the TSX, other Canadian stock exchanges and/or
alternative Canadian trading platforms, at prevailing market rates.
Purchases under the NCIB may also be made by way of private
agreements or share repurchase programs under issuer bid exemption
orders issued by securities regulatory authorities. Any purchases
made under an exemption order issued by a securities regulatory
authority will generally be at a discount to the prevailing market
price. The actual number of common shares purchased under the NCIB,
and the timing of such purchases (if any), will be determined by
the Company. Any common shares purchased by the Company pursuant to
the NCIB will be cancelled.
From time to time, when the Company does not possess material
non-public information about itself or its securities, it may enter
into a pre-defined plan with its broker to allow for the repurchase
of common shares of the Company at times when the Company
ordinarily would not be active in the market due to its own
internal trading blackout periods, insider trading rules or
otherwise. Any such plans entered into with the Company's broker
will be adopted in accordance with applicable Canadian securities
laws.
Under its current normal course issuer bid, which expires on
August 13, 2019, the Company is
authorized to purchase for cancellation up to 18,000,000 of its
common shares. To date, the Company has purchased 16,377,550
common shares for cancellation at a volume weighted average price
of approximately $50.38 per common
share.
Forward-Looking Statements
From time to time, the
Company makes written or oral 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 applicable Canadian securities legislation.
Forward-looking statements contained in this news release include
statements (i) relating to our potential new normal course issuer
bid (including, but not limited to, statements relating to the
entrance into a pre-defined plan with our broker), (ii) that
are predictive in nature or that depend upon or refer to future
events or conditions, and (iii) that include words such as
"achieve", "aim", "ambition", "anticipate", "aspiration",
"assumption", "believe", "could", "estimate", "expect", "goal",
"initiatives", "intend", "may", "objective", "outlook", "plan",
"project", "seek", "should", "strategy", "strive", "target", "will"
and similar expressions. The forward-looking statements made in
this news release are stated as at July 31,
2019, represent the Company's current expectations,
estimates and projections regarding future events and are not
historical facts. These statements are not a guarantee of future
performance and involve assumptions and risks and uncertainties
that are difficult to predict. Some of these assumptions and risks
and uncertainties are described further in the Company's
management's discussion and analysis for the year ended
December 31, 2018 under the heading
"Forward-looking Statements", in the risk factors set out in the
Company's annual information form for the year ended December 31, 2018 under the heading "Risk
Factors", in the other factors detailed in the Company's annual and
interim financial statements and in the Company's other filings
with Canadian and U.S. securities regulators, which are available
for review at www.sedar.com and www.sec.gov, respectively. Actual
results may differ materially from those expressed, implied or
forecasted in such forward-looking statements and there is no
assurance that OSFI and/or the TSX will approve the NCIB or that
any common shares will be purchased under the NCIB.
The Company does not undertake any obligation to update or
revise its forward-looking statements to reflect events or
circumstances after the date of this news release or to reflect the
occurrence of unanticipated events, except as required by law.
About Sun Life
Sun Life is a leading international
financial services organization providing insurance, wealth and
asset management solutions to individual and corporate Clients. Sun
Life has operations in a number of markets worldwide, including
Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Hong
Kong, the Philippines,
Japan, Indonesia, India, China,
Australia, Singapore, Vietnam, Malaysia and Bermuda. As of June 30,
2019, Sun Life had total assets under management of
$1,025 billion. For more information,
please visit www.sunlife.com.
Sun Life Financial Inc. trades on the Toronto (TSX), New
York (NYSE) and Philippine (PSE) stock exchanges under the
ticker symbol SLF.
Note to Editors: All figures in Canadian dollars.
Media Relations Contact:
Noah Zatzman
Manager, Media & PR
Corporate Communications
T. 416-526-4208
Noah.Zatzman@sunlife.com
Investor Relations Contact:
Leigh Chalmers
Senior Vice-President, Head of
Investor Relations & Capital
Management
T. 647-256-8201
investor.relations@sunlife.com
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SOURCE Sun Life Financial Inc.