Sinarmas Land share buyback raises questions

SHARE buybacks, part of a firm's defence arsenal to beat the market's under appreciation of its stock or to provide support amid a selloff, rarely turns into fodder for market wags.

This was not quite the case for Singapore-listed Sinarmas Land, a real estate firm controlled by Indonesia's billionaire Widjaja family, which coughed up S$88.5 million or 59 Singapore cents apiece to buy back 149.8 million shares on Sept 18.

Between then and Sept 30, the company has done several more buybacks, accumulating almost 152 million shares or half of some 304 million shares it is authorised to purchase under the programme. This would mark the firm's first buyback plan since its listing on the Singapore Exchange (SGX) in July 1997.