Pa I agree somewhat but then you have to think twiggy may be...

Pa I agree somewhat but then you have to think twiggy may be knly doing it so he collects the divi then as usual buys on market therefore leaving less shares on register to short ?

rcman, you know I love you man . Not in the " you two need to find a room" way but because of your contributions to the threads.

Now I disagree with you about this strategy. The best way to defend the company's share price is not to hoover up shares but to make the fundamentals stronger. Twiggy could have paid down debt, the dividend cost $404.3 million dollars. That is the amount by which debt could have been reduced and strengthened the company. I think when he declared the 10c dividend, he did not think the IO price would fall as much as it has. So that was somewhat justified even if not well thought. The 3 c dividend was declared when the IO price had already fallen substantially; he should have just declared a nil dividend and paid down debt. If IO recovers, I hope the company pays down debt so it gets away from near death experiences.