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Imperial Oil continues existing share repurchase program
| Toronto, ON,
June 21, 2005
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Imperial Oil Limited today announced it has received final acceptance from the
Toronto Stock Exchange for a new normal course issuer bid to continue its
existing share repurchase program facility that will expire on June 22, 2005.
The new program enables the company to repurchase up to five percent of its
currently 341,612,109 outstanding common shares, or a maximum of 17,080,605
shares during the next 12 months. That total will include shares purchased for
the company's employee savings plan and employee retirement plan. Shares
purchased under the normal course issuer bid are cancelled.
The new program will begin on June 23, 2005, and will end when the company has
purchased the maximum allowable number of shares, unless it provides earlier
notice of termination. If not previously terminated, the program will end on
June 22, 2006. All share purchases will be made through the Toronto Stock
Exchange.
Exxon Mobil Corporation has advised Imperial that
it will participate in the new program, as it has in the existing one, to
maintain its ownership percentage in Imperial at 69.6 percent. ExxonMobil said
it will review its participation from time to time and inform Imperial of any
change in its intentions.
From time to time Imperial expects
to have cash in excess of its day-to-day operating needs. After considering
alternative means of distributing excess cash to shareholders, the board of
directors of Imperial has concluded that it would be in the best interests of
Imperial and its shareholders to proceed with the normal course issuer bid
since it is a flexible and reasonable way of rebalancing Imperial's capital
structure while distributing a portion of its cash reserves to shareholders
who choose to participate by selling their shares. Exxon Mobil's participation
in the normal course issuer bid will permit Exxon Mobil to maintain (rather
than increase) its current percentage ownership level of shares.
In addition, Imperial introduced a stock option plan in 2002 for selected
directors and key employees. Since there could be a dilution in the percentage
ownership levels of shareholders that would result from the issue of shares on
the exercise of stock options, Imperial considers that it would be in the best
interests of Imperial and its shareholders to proceed with the normal course
issuer bid in order to reduce or eliminate such dilution. The company has no
plans to issue stock options in the future.
Share repurchases
under the existing program had reached 16,087,483 shares at a total cost of
about $1,254 billion by
June 20, 2005, representing an average cost of
$77.96 per share. The maximum allowable number of shares that could be
acquired under the program was about 17.9 million, including shares purchased
for the employee savings plan and retirement plan.
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