V1I am no corporate governance expert... and am not sure of the...

V1

I am no corporate governance expert... and am not sure of the companies that have done that.

The following excert is from ASIC.... basically if the company is in possession of "inside information", which I take to be knowledge of the profit result, knowledge of drill results, knowledge of a deal for acquisition of divestment that has reached an exteremely advanced stage (probably signed, or highly like to be signed), or any other material information.

Note that with the Annual result, I guess if they announce what they expect the profit to be, then the market is informed, and their disclosure obligation is fulfilled, thus allowing them to recommence the buyback before the annual report or actual accounts are released. It is all basically about disclosure, and if they feel they have disclosed everything material, then they are allowed to buy back shares.

http://www.asic.gov.au/asic/pdflib.nsf/LookupByFileName/rg101.pdf/$file/rg101.pdf

Buy back must comply with the ASXLRs
RG 101.31 The responsible entity of a listed scheme must comply with the ASXLRs in relation to an on-market buy-back of interests as if the scheme were a company listed on ASX, including:

(a) ASXLR 3.8A, which requires that appropriate ongoing market disclosure be made to ASX (see RG 101.32);
(b) ASXLR 7.29, which requires that transactions in the scheme?s interests are recorded on ASX on at least five days in the three months before the buy-back; and
(c) ASXLR 7.33, which requires the buy-back price to be no more than 5% above the average of the market price of the interests (see RG 101.33?RG 101.34).

Ongoing market disclosures
RG 101.32 The responsible entity of a listed scheme must make appropriate ongoing disclosure to ASX to:
(a) comply with the continuous disclosure requirements of the Corporations Act and the ASXLRs; and
(b) assure the market it is not buying back interests while possessing inside information in breach of the insider trading provisions (s1043A).