In previous SBBs that I have witnessed the company has...

In previous SBBs that I have witnessed the company has periodically cancelled the shares they had bought. I did not notice any pattern and have not investigated the rules around it.

Any change to the number of shares on issue must be communicated in a timely manner to the market.

Given I have seen no notification of share cancellations from ICI it would seem that they are holding onto the shares. The annual and half yearly reports should give an indication if that is the case.

I haven't checked however one thought I had was whether the company had used shares bought back in the previous SBB to save having to issue as many new shares for their acquisitions to date.