TORONTO, Dec. 1, 2021 /CNW/ - Royal Bank of Canada (the Bank) (TSX: RY) (NYSE: RY) today
announced its intention, subject to the approval of the Toronto
Stock Exchange (TSX) and the Office of the Superintendent of
Financial Institutions (OSFI), to commence a normal course issuer
bid and to repurchase for cancellation up to 45 million of its
common shares. The Bank intends to file a notice of intention with
the TSX in this regard.
Purchases may commence on December 8,
2021, provided the TSX has accepted the notice of intention,
and may continue until December 7,
2022, when the bid expires or such earlier date as the Bank
may complete its purchases pursuant to the notice of intention.
Purchases may be made through the TSX, the New York Stock Exchange
and other designated exchanges and alternative Canadian trading
systems. The price paid for any repurchased shares will be the
prevailing market price at the time of acquisition. The timing and
amount of any purchases under the program are subject to regulatory
approvals and to management discretion based on factors such as
market conditions and capital adequacy.
The shares that may be repurchased represent approximately 3.16
per cent of the Bank's outstanding common shares as at November 26, 2021. On November 26, 2021, there were 1,425,279,101
common shares outstanding.
The proposed normal course issuer bid will give us the
flexibility to manage the Bank's capital position while generating
shareholder value. On October 31,
2021, the Bank's Common Equity Tier 1, Tier 1 and Total
capital ratios were 13.7 per cent, 14.9 per cent and 16.7 per cent,
respectively.
Caution regarding forward-looking statements
Certain statements contained in this press release may be deemed
to be 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 any applicable Canadian securities legislation. These
forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to,
statements with respect to the normal course issuer bid by Royal
Bank of Canada. Forward-looking
statements are typically identified by words such as "believe",
"expect", "foresee", "forecast", "anticipate", "intend",
"estimate", "goal", "plan" and "project" and similar expressions of
future or conditional verbs such as "will", "may", "should",
"could" or "would".
By their very nature, forward-looking statements require us to
make assumptions and are subject to inherent risks and
uncertainties, which give rise to the possibility that our
predictions, forecasts, projections, expectations or conclusions
will not prove to be accurate, that our assumptions may not be
correct and that our forward-looking statements, including
statements about the proposed normal course issuer bid by Royal
Bank of Canada, will not be
achieved. We caution readers not to place undue reliance on these
statements as a number of risk factors could cause our actual
results to differ materially from the expectations expressed in
such forward-looking statements. These factors – many of which are
beyond our control and the effects of which can be difficult to
predict – include: credit, market, liquidity and funding,
insurance, operational, regulatory compliance (which could lead to
us being subject to various legal and regulatory proceedings, the
potential outcome of which could include regulatory restrictions,
penalties and fines), strategic, reputation, competitive, legal and
regulatory environment, and systemic risks and other risks
discussed in the risk sections and Impact of COVID-19 pandemic
section of our annual report for the fiscal year ended October 31, 2021 (the 2021 Annual Report)
including business and economic conditions, information technology
and cyber risks, environmental and social risk (including climate
change), digital disruption and innovation, Canadian housing and
household indebtedness, geopolitical uncertainty, privacy, data and
third-party related risks, regulatory changes, culture and conduct,
the effects of changes in government fiscal, monetary and other
policies, tax risk and transparency, environmental and social risk,
and the emergence of widespread health emergencies or public health
crises such as pandemics and epidemics, including the COVID-19
pandemic and its impact on the global economy and financial market
conditions and our business operations, and financial results,
condition and objectives. In addition, as we work to advance our
climate goals, external factors outside of RBC's reasonable control
may act as constraints on their achievement, including varying
decarbonization efforts across economies, the need for thoughtful
climate policies around the world, more and better data, reasonably
supported methodologies, and technological advancements, the
evolution of consumer behavior, the challenges of balancing interim
emissions goals with an orderly and just transition, and other
significant considerations such as legal and regulatory
obligations.
We caution that the foregoing list of risk factors is not
exhaustive and other factors could also adversely affect our
results. When relying on our forward-looking statements to make
decisions with respect to us, investors and others should carefully
consider the foregoing factors and other uncertainties and
potential events. Material economic assumptions underlying the
forward looking-statements contained in this press release are set
out in the Economic, market and regulatory review and outlook
section and for each business segment under the Strategic
priorities and Outlook headings in our 2021 Annual Report. Except
as required by law, we do not undertake to update any
forward-looking statement contained in this press release.
Additional information about these and other factors can be
found in the risk sections and Impact of COVID-19 pandemic section
of our 2021 Management's Discussion and Analysis.
SOURCE Royal Bank of Canada