I think *most* of the $27M will form part of their investment in C-REIT (company announced they will own 10% of the shares (migh have been 15%?) This is fine by me, shows alignment to investors, and yes I'd rather it earns 6.75%pa than 1.7% in the bank at call! Worth an additional +$1M of co-investment revenue alone.
Re: Share buyback. Yes, they missed an opportunity to buyback when SP languished to 38c a few months ago. But credit where credit is due, they did distribute a massive special divy when they settled Generation last year. I can think of plenty of companies with worse capital management strategies.... MGX, Centuria... any of the miners really.
And although I agree with you (they had ample capacity to Buyback). It could be counted than an investment in C-REIT is more high yielding than an investment in APD (only 4-5% div).