Great-West Lifeco Inc. (TSX:GWO) announces a share repurchase program. Under the program, the company will repurchase up to 8,000,000 shares, representing 0.8% of its issued capital. The repurchases will be made at prevailing market prices through the facilities of the TSX and as well as on alternative Canadian trading platforms. The repurchased shares will be cancelled. The purpose of the bid is to mitigate the dilutive effect of stock options issued under the company's Stock Option Plan. The daily repurchase restriction is 139,185 shares, other than block purchase exceptions. The company also announced that it has entered into an automatic purchase plan with a broker in order to facilitate purchases of its common shares when the company would ordinarily not be permitted to make purchases due to regulatory restrictions or self-imposed blackout periods. Purchases will be made by the company's broker based upon the parameters prescribed by the TSX and the terms of the parties' written agreement. Outside of these black-out periods, common shares may also be purchased in accordance with management's discretion. The bid will expire on January 7, 2017. As of December 21, 2015, the company has 993,350,331 shares outstanding.

On June 17, 2016, the company announced that it intends to purchase for cancellation, up to 5,809,000 of its common shares pursuant to private agreements between the corporation and several arm's length third-party sellers. These purchases will be made pursuant to issuer bid exemption orders issued by the Ontario Securities Commission. The total number of common shares which may be purchased under private agreements may not exceed 6,666,666, being one-third of the total number of common shares which may be purchased under the corporation's bid, and any purchases must occur on or before January 7, 2017. Any purchases of common shares made by way of private agreements under the orders will be at a discount to the prevailing market price of the common shares on the Toronto Stock Exchange at the time of purchase, may be made in one or more trades from time to time, and will otherwise comply with the terms of the orders.