Basically, one can just take part in it and set a discount percentage at 0%. If there are not enough participants, the shares will be purchased back at market price and the franking credit plus the loss nominal loss for CGT purposes will be very rewarding. The franking credit alone is worth around 20%! Imagine if one can get this! The catch is that one has to come up with money in advance to buy the replacement shares BEFORE selling the existing shares back to Westpac if the buyback price is significantly lower than the purchase price. It's tricky. If you wait until the week of the buyback date and the share price has recovered well, buying replacement shares will be tricky as it could drop after the buyback date! Also, if you can sell on the market at break-even or a profit then too many people will offer their shares and Westpac would scale back and you won't be able to sell your shares to Westpac. There is no certainty! This leads back to the point of setting the discount at a 0% level to be safe and not buy any more shares if you don't believe Westpac share price will go up significantly. It comes back to the point right now, "Should one buy replacement shares right now when it seems to be low?"
WBC Price at posting:
$20.82 Sentiment: None Disclosure: Held
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