BARRIE, Ontario, Aug. 27, 2015 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Student Transportation Inc. ("STI") (TSX:STB) (NASDAQ:STB) announced today that the Toronto Stock Exchange (the "Exchange") has approved an amendment of STI's normal course issuer bid for a portion of its common shares ("Common Shares").
As announced on October 21, 2014, under its current normal course issuer bid STI is permitted to acquire up to a maximum number of Common Shares equal to the lesser of 4,158,553 Common Shares, being 5% of the issued and outstanding Common Shares as of October 14, 2014, and that number of Common Shares that can be purchased under the normal course issuer bid for an aggregate purchase price of C$5 million in the 12-month period commencing October 24, 2014 and ending on October 23, 2015. Pursuant to the amended normal course issuer bid, STI can now purchase up to 6,505,109 of its Common Shares, representing 6,806,591 (or 10% of the public float as of October 14, 2014) less 301,482 Common Shares that have already been purchased under the normal course issuer bid. In addition, under the amended normal course issuer bid STI will not be subject to the $5 million maximum amount of purchases.
The TSX accepted notice of the amended normal course issuer bid on August 27, 2015 and the amendment will take effect on September 1, 2015.
Commenting on the amendment, CEO Denis Gallagher stated, "Amending our normal course issuer bid to increase the amount of common shares that can be repurchased allows us to take advantage of an opportunity to buy back shares at a time when we believe that the trading price of our shares is significantly below their intrinsic value based on the fundamentals of our business. Since our offering in March 2015, when we issued shares at a significantly higher price than current trading levels, we have reduced our debt and improved and grown our business. We believe that current market conditions provide an opportunity to buy back and cancel shares in circumstances that are in the best long-term interests of our shareholders and the company."