Just the TRUTH! STRONG TRACK RECORD FOR RETURNING CAPITAL TO SHAREHOLDERS
In YTD 2021, the Company continued its strong track record for returning capital to shareholders, returning a total of $333.9 million, representing $1.28 per share and $317 per ounce produced in YTD 2021. Of the $339.9 million returned, $183.6 million of cash was used for the repurchase of 4,466,200 shares through the Company’s normal course issuer bid (“NCIB”) (of which 3,392,100 shares were repurchased for $137.2 million through the Automatic Share Purchase Plan (“ASPP”)). An additional $150.4 million of cash was used for three quarterly dividend payments, each totalling $0.1875 per share, with the Q2 2021 dividend paid on July 14, 2021 to shareholders of record on June 30, 2021.
With the addition of share repurchases and dividend payments in YTD 2021, the Company has now returned a total of $1.36 billion to shareholders since the Company first introduced its NCIB in May 2017 and dividend policy in March 2017. Of this amount, $1.05 billion has been used to repurchase 31.5 million shares, while $315.2 million has been used to make 17 quarterly dividend payments, with the quarterly dividend having been increased seven times. In addition, since the middle of 2016, the Company has repaid or converted $190.4 million of debt, including repaying $98.6 million of debt held by Detour Gold Corporation shortly after its acquisition on January 31, 2020 and used $30.3 million to close out Detour Gold’s hedge positions relating to forward gold sales as well as hedges on currencies and diesel fuel. A substantial return was earned on the $30.3 million used to close out the hedge positions in 2020 given changes in gold and commodity prices and exchange rates during the year. The Company also repurchased a Net Smelter Return royalty at Macassa for $36.0 million. In aggregate, these uses of capital have provided over $1.60 billion of value to shareholders since the middle of 2016 at the same time that the Company has established one of the industry’s strongest and cleanest balance sheets, with cash at September 30, 2021 of $822.4 million and no debt.
So why would we vote to return our Capital to AEM's shareholders??
It is a universal truth, that only in the human race Stupid still thrives, everywhere else it is extinct.