Good morning Bazza, good question.
CHP would continue to trade if CMY were placed into a trading halt. Obviously the TH will have a lot of speculation attached to it and in that meantime I can see people taking an interest in CHP so it may well rise, but in the big picture for Chapmans, CMY really isn't that big of a factor for CHP at the moment with only an 8.2% holding + the small look-through with D4 holding 5%. This may all change once a deal is announced and all the announcements regarding the issue of X amount of shares etc for the acquisiton are known.
Regarding the dates/the share buyback of unmarketable parcels.. You could be onto something there. A deal prior to the new year has always been the time I thought they would announce the acquisition or whatnot at CMY so this falls in line with that.
Part of the reason for the buyback is obviously to tighten the register as CHP has been plowing through this lower level and hence the reason for a 'clean up/flush out' at this higher level, but don't think for a second as you've stated that they would be doing this just to reduce admin costs etc.. There are a bucket load of shekels to be made from this buyback, they've confirmed that they believe CHP will be worth a bucket load more with there own buying up to 1.1c and owning ~35% of the company between two directors, so another 2-3% of the company tucked away doesn't hurt
