Royal Bank of Canada announces specific share repurchase program as part of its normal course issuer bid

TORONTO, Oct. 11, 2017 /CNW/ - Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) ("RY" on TSX and NYSE) today announced that it will repurchase shares under a specific share repurchase program (the "Program").  RBC will enter into an agreement (the "Agreement") with a third party to repurchase common shares through daily purchases that will take place between October 16, 2017 and October 30, 2017, subject to a maximum of 5,000,000 common shares.  The Program will form part of RBC's Normal Course Issuer Bid for up to 30,000,000 common shares (the "NCIB") announced on March 9, 2017.

Pursuant to the terms of the Agreement, and subject to the terms of an issuer bid exemption order issued by the Ontario Securities Commission (the "Order"), the third party will purchase RBC's common shares on Canadian markets for the purpose of enabling the third party to fulfil its delivery obligations to RBC under the Agreement.  The price that RBC will pay for any common shares purchased by it from the third party under the Agreement will be negotiated by RBC and the third party and will be at a discount to the prevailing market price of RBC's common shares on the Canadian markets at the time of purchase.  RBC currently intends to purchase the maximum of 5,000,000 common shares under the Program, however the number of common shares purchased pursuant to the Program may be less than the Program maximum if, among other things, it is not possible to purchase common shares within the price range established prior to commencement of the Program, if trading is suspended, or as a result of market factors.  In accordance with the terms of the Order, immediately following the completion of the Program, RBC will issue a news release providing information regarding the purchases made pursuant to the Program including the number of common shares purchased and aggregate purchase price paid.

Pursuant to the terms of the Agreement and the Order, all purchases made by the third party or its agents on the TSX and other Canadian markets pursuant to the Program will be made in accordance with the TSX rules applicable to the normal course issuer bid, subject to limited exceptions as provided in the Order. RBC will acquire common shares from the third party pursuant to the Agreement as part of the normal course issuer bid and such common shares will be cancelled upon purchase by RBC.

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 specific share repurchase program forming part of Royal Bank of Canada's normal course issuer bid. 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 specific share repurchase program forming part of the 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, strategic, reputation, legal and regulatory environment, competitive and systematic risks and other risks discussed in the Risk management and Overview of other risks sections of our 2016 Annual Report and in the Risk management section of our Q3 2017 Report to Shareholders; global uncertainty, the Brexit vote to have the United Kingdom leave the European Union, weak oil and gas prices, cyber risk, anti-money laundering, exposure to more volatile sectors, technological innovation and new Fintech entrants, increasing complexity of regulation, data management, litigation and administrative penalties, the business and economic conditions in the geographic regions in which we operate, the effects of changes in government fiscal, monetary and other policies; tax risk and transparency; and environmental risk.

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 Overview and outlook section and for each business segment under the heading Outlook and priorities in our 2016 Annual Report, as updated by the Overview and outlook section in our Q3 2017 Report to Shareholders. Except as required by law, we do not undertake to update any forward-looking statement contained in this press release.

SOURCE Royal Bank of Canada

Investor Contact: Asim Imran, Investor Relations, 416-955-7804, [email protected]; Media contact: Ka Yan Ng, Communications, 416- 974-3058, [email protected]