Imperial Oil Continues Existing Share Repurchase Program
June 23 2011 - 1:01PM
PR Newswire (Canada)
CALGARY, June 23, 2011 /CNW/ -- CALGARY, June 23, 2011 /CNW/ -
Imperial Oil Limited today announced it has received final
acceptance from the Toronto Stock Exchange for a new normal course
issuer bid to continue its existing share repurchase program
facility that will expire on June 24, 2011. The new program enables
the company to repurchase up to five percent of its 847,709,258
outstanding common shares as of June 15, 2011, or a maximum of
42,385,463 shares during the next 12 months. That total will be
reduced by the number of shares purchased for the company's
employee savings plan and employee retirement plan. Shares
purchased under the normal course issuer bid are restored to the
status of authorized but unissued shares. Exxon Mobil Corporation,
Imperial's majority shareholder, will also be permitted to sell its
shares to Imperial outside the provisions of, but concurrently
with, the normal course issuer bid in order to maintain its
proportionate share ownership at 69.6%. Exxon Mobil Corporation has
advised Imperial that it intends to participate, as it has in prior
years. The new one year program will begin on June 25, 2011, and
will end when the company has purchased the maximum allowable
number of shares, or it provides earlier notice of termination. All
share purchases will be made through the facilities of the Toronto
Stock Exchange. From time to time Imperial may have cash in excess
of its day-to-day operating and capital investment needs.
Imperial's board of directors has concluded that it would be in the
best interests of its shareholders to have the flexibility to
purchase shares in the market and from Exxon Mobil Corporation. If
required, it is a flexible way of rebalancing Imperial's capital
structure while distributing a portion of its cash reserves to
shareholders who choose to participate by selling their shares.
Exxon Mobil Corporation's concurrent participation with the normal
course issuer bid will permit Exxon Mobil Corporation to maintain
its current percentage ownership level of shares. In addition,
Imperial had a stock option plan in 2002 for selected directors and
key employees. In December 2002, Imperial also introduced a
restricted stock unit plan pursuant to which shares may be issued
upon vesting. Since there could be a dilution in the
percentage ownership levels of shareholders that would result from
the issue of shares on the exercise of stock options and the
vesting of restricted stock units, Imperial considers that it would
be in the best interests of Imperial and its shareholders to
proceed with the purchase of shares in the market and from Exxon
Mobil Corporation to reduce or eliminate such dilution. The company
has no plans to issue stock options in the future. Imperial will
continue to evaluate its share purchase program in the context of
its overall capital activities. Share repurchases under the
existing program were limited to 917,997 shares at a total cost of
about $44.2 million by June 15, 2011, representing an average cost
of $48.14 per share. Imperial's daily trading limit under the
new program will be 211,646 shares, which number is 25% of
Imperial's daily trading volume. To view this news release in HTML
formatting, please use the following URL:
http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/June2011/23/c8831.html
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td Media Relations /td /tr tr td Mark Stumpf /td td
/td td (403)237-2710 /td /tr tr td (403)237-4537 /td /tr /table p
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