I still find the pause in buy back very odd. Some posters on...

I still find the pause in buy back very odd. Some posters on here suggesting the pause is due to the 'blackout' period. I find this to be an invalid explanation as I believe the buybacks are not affected by blackout periods. Someone please correct me with evidence if I'm wrong.


I am still of the opinion that the pause in buyback has something to do with an acquisition.

1. Best case scenario, tomorrows results get released along with an EPS accretive acquisition announcement.
2. It's also possible they have paused buy buy backs while they carry out due diligence on a potential acquisition. Doesn't make sense to pause for this long with no announcement though.
3. Worst case scenario, management knows upcoming results will be bad and paused so they can buy back after the results. This was makes the least sense to me as I have never seen that happen before.

I think scenario 1 is most likely but the way the SP has been behaving I'm not counting on it.

In any case, I invested on the basis of $210 EBITDA for FY24. Key is to achieve 0 to 5% growth off this number for FY25 before resuming to high single digit growth in FY26 onwards. If they haven't achieved $210 EBITDA for FY24, it brings into question what they can deliver for FY25 and beyond. I'm particularly interested in US performance which has a very low EBITDA ratio compared to the other regions.