Royal Bank Of Canada To Repurchase Up To 12M Of Its Common Shares

Royal Bank of Canada ("RY" on TSX and NYSE) today announced that the Toronto Stock Exchange has approved its normal course issuer bid to purchase, for cancellation, up to 12 million of its common shares. The shares that may be repurchased represent approximately 0.8 per cent of the bank's outstanding common shares. As of October 20, 2014 there were 1,442,217,272 common shares of the bank outstanding. Purchases under the normal course issuer bid may commence on November 1, 2014 and continue until October 31, 2015, when the bid expires. Purchases may be made through the Toronto Stock Exchange, the New York Stock Exchange and other designated exchanges and published markets in both Canada and the U.S. The price paid for any repurchased shares will be the prevailing market price at the time of acquisition. The amount of purchases on any given day will not exceed 455,905 common shares, which is 25 per cent of the average daily trading volume on the Toronto Stock Exchange for the six months ending September 30, 2014. The average daily trading volume of the bank's shares on the Toronto Stock Exchange for that six-month period, calculated in accordance with the rules of the Toronto Stock Exchange for the purposes of the bid, was 1,823,620 shares. The purchase of common shares under the normal course issuer bid will enable the bank to balance the imperatives of maintaining strong capital ratios with the ongoing need to generate shareholder value. The bank's previous normal course issuer bid commenced on November 1, 2013 and will expire on October 31, 2014. Over the term of the previous bid, the bank purchased approximately 1.5 million of its common shares for cancellation at an average price of $72.63 per share.