The notice you refer to was a summary of 12 months of share...

The notice you refer to was a summary of 12 months of share buy-backs. So it should be clarified that the company didn't purchase shares at 5 times the current price 3 weeks ago. But your point is that over the past 12 months the company has paid well in excess of the current price and there should have been some foresight.

The problem is that the company never indicated that it was conducting a share buy-back based on consideration of value. The rational was: "the objectives of the on-market share buy-back are to increase earnings per share and the company's return on equity". It is fair to say that their objectives have been met. However I would argue this is a very low hurdle, those objectives will be met at any price. It's like saying our objective is to reduce the number of share on issue. Price paid is therefore inconsequential, the target is all bullseye!

The objective of every buy-back should be to create value for shareholders and that can only be done when the shares are undervalued. We live in hope.