MONTREAL,
Oct. 27, 2015 /CNW/ - 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: "We are confident in our ability to
generate strong cash flow from operations to support steady
investments in safety, growth and productivity, maintain a strong
balance sheet and drive shareholder value creation. Since its
privatization in 1995, CN has increased its dividends per share by
17 per cent on average every year for 19 consecutive years and,
since 2000, has created significant shareholder value through
regular share repurchases. CN's new share repurchase program
is a reflection of our on-going commitment to shareholders."
The new normal-course-issuer bid (Bid)
permits CN to purchase, for cancellation, up to 33 million common
shares, representing 4.9 per cent of the 679,543,061 common shares
issued and outstanding of the Company not held by insiders on
Oct. 16, 2015. On that date,
793,033,310 CN common shares were issued and outstanding.
The Bid - starting on Oct. 30, 2015, and ending no later than
Oct. 29, 2016 - will be conducted
through a combination of discretionary transactions and automatic
repurchase plans 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
365,471 common shares under the Company's Bid. Purchases under the
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 or share repurchase programs under one
or more issuer bid exemption orders issued by securities regulatory
authorities in Canada.
The price to be paid by CN for its open market
purchases of common shares will be the market price at the time of
acquisition, plus brokerage fees. Purchases made under issuer bid
exemption orders will be at a discount to the prevailing market
price as per the terms of the order.
CN repurchased 23 million common shares under its
share repurchase program announced in October 2014, at a weighted-average price of
C$75.93 per share, excluding
brokerage fees, returning C$1.75
billion to its shareholders.
CN also announced today that its Board of Directors
has approved a fourth-quarter 2015 dividend on the Company's common
shares outstanding. A quarterly dividend of
thirty-one-and-one-quarter cents (C$0.3125) per common share will be paid on
Dec. 31, 2015, to shareholders of
record at the close of business on Dec. 10,
2015.
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 whose team of
approximately 25,000 railroaders transports more than 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 of
approximately 20,000 route-miles 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 about CN, visit the Company's website at
www.cn.ca.
SOURCE CN