Ann: Notification of buy-back - NEU, page-62

good food for thought there Esmer, I welcome the negative view. I do agree with you on some points however I also think you paint an overly negative view bordering on fear mongering.

companies do buybacks all the time. Its not hard to see they have worked out they have excess cash. So clearly they could earn 5% in the bank on $50m or earn what they humbly believe to be multiples on $50m. so in my view the buyback as assessed by the board is a good use of excess capital which will benefit shareholders in the long term.

I dont think the bb is necessarily targeted at targeting the shareprice. I too wondered at the size of it and the impact it would have on the shareprice. However if neu is as tightly held as some on this forum say and the decline is due to bots selling to one another, then surely a big player (~3m shares) coming into the market will soak up some of those bots shares and make it more difficult to push the price down. so I'm prepared to wait until dec 2 and beyond to see what impact it will have, but open to the possibility it'll have none.

Agree on the small number of shares in circulation, I've thought myself of that in the past that may lead to easier manipulation but I dont think reducing by 3m is neither here or there in the scheme of things. again, prepared to wait to dec 2nd to see.

I think neu continues to have a very strong cash balance, especially remembering the prv sold for usd$150m compared to the usd$100m expected, so the extra 1/3 to neu largely funds the bb. I disagree with you that the bb is squandering neu's strong cash position, in fact I still think they're in an extremely strong cash position. more will be revealed when they release details on ph3 for pms.

I think the risk you raise to daybue revenues is extremely low, the drug has been well tested and has been out in the field. I think your fear mongering here on this risk and the need to raise capital to fund trials.

I think your negative rating of management is largely unfounded and unfair (I understand the ph3 endpoints was more to do with it being a new indication and largely working through it but agree still a risk until cleared). I do agree with you though that messaging could be better and the uncertainty that they have created at times is unwanted, ultimately I trust Jon and co to run the company.

At the end of the day, you've jumped on when the shareprice is experiencing a dramatic decline so I take your comments on board and continue to monitor as clearly the market is seeing something that I'm not.

neu is down 7% so far on heavy volume, on the back of the steep declines the last few days, yep I dont know anything. Having said that I do think its overdone and too fast, I'll be looking to add when it shows signs of turning.