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, …