Maple Leaf Foods Inc. (MFI: TSX) has announced that the Toronto Stock Exchange (the “TSX”) has accepted the notice filed by the Company to establish a normal course issuer bid (“NCIB”) program.
The NCIB program commenced on May 19, 2016, and will terminate on May 18, 2017, or on such earlier date as the Company may complete its purchases pursuant to a Notice of Intention filed with the TSX. Under the NCIB program, the Company is authorized to purchase up to 8,700,000 of its common shares (out of the 134,614,289 common shares outstanding as at May 10, 2016) representing approximately 10% of the public float as at May 10, 2016, by way of normal course purchases effected through the facilities of the TSX and/or alternative Canadian trading systems. The average daily trading volume for the six months ended April 30, 2016 was 276,587 common shares. Common shares purchased by the Company will be cancelled. Pursuant to the terms of a previous normal course issuer bid approved by the TSX on March 23, 2015, the Company repurchased an aggregate of 8,650,000 common shares at a weighted average price of $22.48 per share for cancellation during the period commencing on March 25, 2015 and ending on January 22, 2016.
In deciding to establish the NCIB, the Company believes that the market price of the common shares may not, from time to time, fully reflect their value and accordingly the purchase of the common shares would be in the best interest of the Corporation and an attractive and appropriate use of available funds.
Purchases will be made by the Company in accordance with the requirements of the TSX and the price which the Company will pay for any such common shares will be the market price of any such common shares at the time of acquisition, or such other price as may be permitted by the TSX. For purposes of the TSX rules, a maximum of 69,146 common shares may be purchased by the Company on any one day under the bid, except where purchases are made in accordance with the “block purchase exception” of the TSX rules.
