Bank of Montreal Receives Regulatory Approvals for Normal Course Issuer Bid

TORONTO, May 30, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Bank of Montreal (TSX:BMO)(NYSE:BMO) today announced that it has received approvals from the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX) and the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions Canada (OSFI) to proceed with its previously-announced normal course issuer bid through the facilities of the TSX as well as through other alternative Canadian trading systems to purchase, for cancellation, up to 20 million of its common shares, commencing June 1, 2018, and ending no later than May 31, 2019.

The maximum number of common shares that may be repurchased under the normal course issuer bid represents approximately 3.1 per cent of the Bank's "public float" (as such term is defined in the TSX Company Manual) of common shares.

During the week of June 4, 2018, the Bank will establish an automatic securities purchase plan under which its broker, BMO Nesbitt Burns Inc., may at certain points in time purchase its common shares pursuant to the bid within a defined set of criteria.  The actual number of common shares purchased under the bid, the timing of purchases and the price at which the common shares are bought will depend upon management discretion based on factors such as market conditions and capital adequacy.  The purchase price for any shares repurchased by the Bank under the bid will be market price at the time of acquisition. The Bank will consult with OSFI prior to making purchases. 

There were 640,647,217 Bank of Montreal common shares issued and outstanding as at May 16, 2018, and the public float was 640,285,825 common shares. The average daily trading volume for the six months ended April 30, 2018, and the daily maximum number of shares available for purchase, calculated pursuant to the rules of the TSX for the purposes of the bid, were 1,292,618 and 323,155 shares, respectively.

The Bank's prior normal course issuer bid for a maximum of 22 million common shares commenced on May 1, 2017 and expired on April 30, 2018. Over the term of the prior bid, the Bank purchased 13 million of its common shares, at a weighted average price of $93.97 per share.

Caution Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

Bank of Montreal's public communications often include written or oral forward-looking statements. Statements of this type are included in this document, and may be included in other filings with Canadian securities regulators or the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, or in other communications. All such statements are made pursuant to the "safe harbor" provisions of, and are intended to be forward-looking statements under, the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and any applicable Canadian securities legislation. Forward-looking statements may involve, but are not limited to, comments with respect to our objectives and priorities for fiscal 2018 and beyond, our strategies or future actions, our targets, expectations for our financial condition or share price, and the results of or outlook for our operations or for the Canadian, U.S. and international economies.  Forward-looking statements are typically identified by words such as "will", "should", "believe", "expect", "anticipate", "intend", "estimate", "plan", "goal", "target", "may" and "could".