MONTREAL, May 31, 2010 /CNW Telbec/ - The Board of Directors of SNC-Lavalin Group Inc. has filed a notice to renew, for a 12-month period, its normal course issuer bid, which will expire on June 1, 2010. In the notice, the Corporation states that a maximum of 3,000,000 Common Shares, representing less than 2% of the issued and outstanding Common Shares as of May 19, 2010, may be purchased for cancellation. As of May 19, 2010, the Corporation had 150,855,610 Common Shares issued and outstanding, 123,607,799 of which made up the public float.
The Board of the Corporation believes that the purchase of its shares makes appropriate and desirable use of its available cash. As a general practice, the Corporation repurchases its Common Shares mainly to offset the dilutive effect of stock issuance under its stock option programs. Therefore, the Corporation believes that the offer is in the best interest of SNC-Lavalin and its shareholders.
These purchases are to be made through the facilities of the Toronto Stock Exchange, in accordance with its policy on normal course issuer bids. The price the Corporation will pay for any Common Shares will be the market price at the time of acquisition, plus brokerage fees. Purchases may commence on June 2, 2010 and will terminate no later than June 1, 2011. Certain directors and senior officers of the Corporation may sell securities of the Corporation during the course of the normal course issuer bid. During the period that the Normal Course Issuer Bid is outstanding, the Corporation does not intend to make purchases of its Common Shares other than by means of open market transactions or such other means as may be permitted by the Toronto Stock Exchange and securities regulatory authorities as applicable, including block purchases of Common Shares.
The average daily trading volume of the Corporation's Common Shares over the last six completed calendar months was 287,773 ("ADTV"). Accordingly, under the Toronto Stock Exchange Rules and policies, the Corporation is entitled on any trading day to purchase up to 25% of the ADTV, which totals 71,943 Common Shares, for the next 12-month period of the Normal Course Issuer Bid. In excess of the daily 71,943 repurchase limit, the Corporation may also purchase, once a week, a block of Common Shares not owned by any insiders, which may exceed such daily limit, in accordance with the Toronto Stock Exchange Rules.
During the period from June 2, 2009 to May 19, 2010 inclusively, the Corporation purchased 751,500 of its outstanding Common Shares, at a weighted average price of $48.15.
SNC-Lavalin (TSX: SNC) is one of the leading engineering and construction groups in the world and a major player in the ownership of infrastructure, and in the provision of operations and maintenance services. SNC-Lavalin has offices across Canada and in 35 other countries around the world, and is currently working in some 100 countries. www.snclavalin.com.
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Reference in this press release, and hereafter, to the "Company" or to "SNC-Lavalin" means, as the context may require, SNC-Lavalin Group Inc. and all or some of its subsidiaries or joint ventures, or SNC-Lavalin Group Inc. or one or more of its subsidiaries or joint ventures. Statements made in this press release that describe the Company's or management's budgets, estimates, expectations, forecasts, objectives, predictions or projections of the future may be "forward-looking statements", which can be identified by the use of the conditional or forward-looking terminology such as "anticipates", "believes", "estimates", "expects", "may", "plans", "projects", "should", "will", or the negative thereof or other variations thereon. The Company cautions that, by their nature, forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties, and that its actual actions and/or results could differ materially from those expressed or implied in such forward-looking statements, or could affect the extent to which a particular projection materializes. For more information on risks and uncertainties, and assumptions that would cause the Company's actual results to differ from current expectations, please refer to the section "Risks and Uncertainties" and the section "How We Analyze and Report our Results", respectively, in the Company's 2009 Financial Report under "Management's Discussion and Analysis". The forward-looking statements herein reflect the Company's expectations as at the date of this press release and are subject to change after this date.
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For further information: Investors: Denis Jasmin, Vice-President, Investor Relations, (514) 393-8000, ext. 7553, [email protected]; Media: Leslie Quinton, Vice-President, Global Public Relations, (514) 393-8000, ext. 7354, [email protected]; SNC-Lavalin press releases are available on its website at www.snclavalin.com
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