CAE announced today that it intends to purchase for cancellation, on or before February 22, 2018, up to 600,000 of its common shares pursuant to a private agreement between CAE and an arm's-length third-party seller. This purchase will be made pursuant to an issuer bid exemption order issued by the Ontario Securities Commission on December 21, 2017. The price that CAE will pay for any common shares purchased by it under the private agreement will be negotiated by CAE and the seller and will be at a discount to the prevailing market price of CAE's common shares on the Toronto Stock Exchange ("TSX") at the time of the purchase. Information regarding the purchase, including the number of common shares purchased and aggregate price paid, will be available on the System for Electronic Document Analysis and Retrieval (SEDAR) at www.sedar.com following the completion of the purchase.
This purchase will form part of CAE's 5,366,756 normal course issuer bid program announced on February 14, 2017 and effective on February 23, 2017, which allows for purchases outside the facilities of the TSX pursuant to exemption orders issued by a securities regulatory authority, including by way of private agreements at a discount to the prevailing market price. The maximum number of common shares which may be purchased by way of all such private agreements cannot exceed 1,788,918, being one-third of the total number of common shares which may be purchased under CAE's 5,366,756 share repurchase program announced on February 14, 2017. Assuming the purchase of 600,000 common shares, CAE will have purchased 38.7% of the total number of common shares which may be purchased under its share repurchase program.