Imperial Oil To Buy Back Up To 5% of Its Common Shares, Exxon To Cooperate

Imperial Oil Ltd. (IMO) has received approval to buy back up to five percent of its outstanding common shares in the next year, while parent Exxon Mobil Crop. (XOM) will participate in order to keep its ownership stake at 69.6%.

The Toronto Stock Exchange has granted Imperial permission to repurchase a maximum of 46,459,967 of its 929,199,351 shares outstanding in the new program.

Under the previous program, share buybacks reached 47.1 million shares on a post share split basis at a total cost of about C$2.0-billion, Imperial said in a statement. This represents an average cost of C$42.67 per share.

Imperial’s existing share repurchase program expires on Friday, June 22, while the new one begins on Monday.