Great-West Lifeco Inc. announced on Wednesday that the Toronto Stock Exchange has accepted a normal course issuer bid.

The corporation intends to purchase for cancellation, during the course of the bid, up to, but not more, than 200,000 Non-Cumulative First Preferred Shares, Series D (the “Series D Preferred Shares”) and 575,000 Non-Cumulative First Preferred Shares, Series E (the “Series E Preferred Shares”) of the corporation, representing 2.5% of the outstanding Series D Preferred Shares and 2.5% of the outstanding Series E Preferred Shares on Aug. 24. As of that date, the total number of outstanding shares was 7,978,900 Series D Preferred Shares and 22,822,915 Series E Preferred Shares. Any shares purchased by the corporation under the bid will be cancelled.

The bid will commence on Sept. 1 and will terminate on Nov. 30. The expiry date of Nov. 30 will allow the corporation to align future normal course issuer bids for these shares with the normal course issuer bid program for the corporation’s common shares.

Purchases will be made through the facilities of the Toronto Stock Exchange at prevailing market prices.

The corporation utilizes the normal course issuer bid program to acquire the Series D Preferred Shares and Series E Preferred Shares in order to reduce the corporation’s overall use of financial leverage represented by debt and non-perpetual preferred shares.

During the past 12 months, the corporation has purchased 21,100 Series D Preferred Shares at an average price of $27.21 per share and 1,045,200 Series E Preferred Shares at an average price of $27.60 per share pursuant to its previous normal course issuer bid.