on market buyback, page-18

Small shareholders seem to be continuing to bail out not waiting for the share buyback. The share buyback will stem the downward price spiral for a while but unless some positive results are forthcoming the buyback will only do this temporarily. It looks like the poor past results of PEO and the perception that the company lacks honesty and any clear direction is causing small shareholders to sell out and rid themselves of the company once and for all and nothing bar some good news in the form of a good end of year result (unlikely in my opinion) or some extremely positive announcement will stop the downward spiral.

There is always a chance that the share buyback is so directors can transfer the money from the sale of the Perth data centre to themselves before the company goes belly up but even if small shareholders believe this is the reason for the share buyback it doesn’t explain the continued selling off before the share buyback begins. I guess when a company sells off its only profitable part and doesn’t give any valid reason for it and doesn’t even keep the money from the sale in reserve (reducing its asset backing even lower than the pitiful level it already is) it doesn’t look good. Given the continued consistent selling since the sale of the Perth data centre and the announcement of the share buyback it appears that small shareholders see the company as untrustworthy and aren’t prepared to have faith in it any longer. I guess you can’t blame them.