Great-West Lifeco Inc. (TSX:GWO) announces a share repurchase program. Under the program, the company will repurchase up to 20,000,000 common shares, representing 2.03% of its share capital. The repurchases will be made through the facilities of the TSX and alternative Canadian trading systems or by such other means as may be permitted by the TSX or under applicable law, including private agreement purchases. 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 and for other capital management purposes. The daily repurchase restriction is 101,337 common shares, other than block purchase exceptions. The company also announced that it will enter 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. The repurchases 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 8, 2018. As of December 23, 2016, the company had 986,398,335 issued and outstanding common shares.