TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – Canadian gold producer Eldorado Gold has renewed its share-buying programme for another year to satisfy obligations under its restricted share unit plan (RSU plan) for employees, officers of the company or a related entity as designated by the board.
Eldorado on Friday reported that the TSX had approved a normal course issuer bid (NCIB) through which Eldorado could buy up to 2.08-million of its common shares, representing about 0.3% of its 716.59-million issued and outstanding shares as at Wednesday.
The intermediate gold mining company with assets in Turkey, China, Greece, Brazil and Romania, would buy stock at prevailing market prices starting next Wednesday and end on May 26, 2016. Under TSX policies, daily purchases may not exceed 730 366 shares, representing 25% of the average daily trading volume of 2.92-million shares, subject to certain prescribed exemptions.
During its previous NCIB, Eldorado bought 515 553 shares at an average price of $5.94 apiece.
In 2011, the company established an RSU plan, which entailed that vested RSUs were redeemable for shares, a cash payment equivalent to the value of a share or a combination of cash or shares. The RSU plan provided that shares available to satisfy such redemption would be acquired on the market, which was the reason Eldorado undertook the latest NCIB.
Eldorado had appointed Valiant Trust Company as the trustee for arranging the share acquisitions and to hold the shares in trust until they were required to be transferred to designated participants under the terms of the RSU plan, as well as to deal with other administrative matters.
Through the trustee, GMP Securities had been engaged to undertake purchases under the NCIB for the purposes of the RSU plan. GMP was required to comply with the TSX NCIB rules regarding the share purchases, owing to the trustee not being considered to be a nonindependent trustee by the TSX for the purposes of the NCIB rules.