Great-West Lifeco Inc. received approval from the Toronto Stock Exchange for the renewal of its normal course issuer bid to purchase for cancellation up to 20 million of its common shares, equivalent to approximately 2.16% of its issued and outstanding common shares.

The normal course issuer bid will commence Jan. 22, 2020, and will expire Jan. 21, 2021. The company intends to use the normal course issuer bid to mitigate the dilutive effect of issuing securities under its stock option plan and for other capital management purposes.

Under its previous normal course issuer bid, which was terminated Jan. 17, the company purchased 2 million of its common shares at a weighted average price of C$32.90 per share for the period of Feb. 1, 2019, to Jan. 31, 2020. A non-independent trustee purchased an additional 368,883 common shares at a weighted average price of C$31.08 per share.

The 2,368,883 common shares purchased under the previous normal course issuer bid will be deducted from the 20 million common share limit of the renewed normal course issuer bid.