Repurchases an Initial 1,736,776 Common Shares TORONTO, Aug. 16, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- YAMANA GOLD INC. (“Yamana” or “the Company”) (TSX:YRI; NYSE:AUY; LSE: AUY) today announced that it has repurchased an initial 1,736,776 common shares outstanding for approximately C$10 million under the Company’s normal course issuer bid as part of its share repurchase program for up to 5% of the outstanding shares. The Company has not established any formulae or price ranges under its normal course issuer bid as it plans to be selective and opportunistic in relation to share repurchases intending to enter market when permitted and at times when the trading range of its shares do not reflect the underlying value. The Company is committed to further increasing shareholder returns through its capital returns program, and additional share repurchases will be determined based on market conditions, share price, and best use of available cash, in addition to further considerations. Common shares that are purchased under the normal course issuer bid will be cancelled. For further details of the Company’s normal course issuer bid, see the news release dated July 29, 2021, available at www.yamana.com.
The Company believes that the market price of its common shares does not currently represent their full value and growth prospects and views purchases of common shares as an attractive investment comparable to its investments in its portfolio of exploration and development stage assets. The share repurchases are a further component of the Company’s capital returns program, which also includes cash returns through the Company’s dividends, which have cumulatively increased by 500% since the second quarter of 2019.
With the Company’s recently completed $500 million 10-year unsecured senior notes offering and redemption of existing notes, which significantly reduced aggregate outstanding debt while increasing tenor and lowering interest carrying costs, the Company has further increased its financial resilience and flexibility—one of the Company’s three equally-weighted capital allocation priorities. This allows the Company to more effectively and fully pursue its other two capital allocation priorities: the exploration, development and expansion of priority, low capital cost growth projects, and support and further increase returns of capital to shareholders. Lower interest carrying costs in the approximate amount of $21.6 million annually add to already robust cash flows, contribute to the increase of cash balances and thereby support capital costs and amounts available for dividends and share repurchases.
The Company has high return organic growth projects, including the Jacobina Phase 2 expansion, the Wasamac project and the Odyssey underground project at Canadian Malartic, which the Company intends to fully fund with cash on hand and free cash flow generation. The Company is also advancing the development of the MARA copper-gold project with average annual production of 556 million pounds of copper equivalent in the first 10 years and 469 million pounds of copper equivalent production life of mine over an initial mine life of 28 years.
The Company will continue to take a balanced approach to capital allocation, underpinned by its strong financial position, lower debt service requirements, and significantly improved debt and tenor profile.
Exploration Update Planned for September
The Company will be providing an update on exploration progress at its existing mines as well as an update on its generative exploration program in early-to-mid September.