Alpha Group International Share Price (ALPH)

Thanks. I will bow to your superior wisdom in these matters. I can see that the share buy back is as good as or better than cancelling if the share options & bonuses would have been paid out at the same level anyway. Guess I'm too used to greedy AIM boards just using it as an excuse to give themselves even bigger payoffs.

Kat-079, not sure you've thought about that much... If they bought the shares back and cancelled them, then issued the vested inventive shares to employees as they have done in previous years, then there would be the same number of shares in issue today? You also need to read note 24 - share based payments - in the annual report, as it the shares aren't given away by any means...

Also, if they paid a £10m dividend rather than buyback the 566k shares then right now the share price would be 40p lower (43.5m shares / £877m market cap - £10m dividend). You'd have a ~23p extra dividend, but lower share price...

You then also have to factor in that 566k shares would have been pressuring the share price, so it's highly likely it would still be sitting under resistance at £18

As for letting shares drift, would you be happy buying today at £12 and then waking up tomorrow to a £18 takeover offer?

For long term holders, a buyback at these levels make loads of sense. A lower number of shares in issue = a higher share price in future years. The ROI should end up way higher than a 1% dividend yield at present levels...

Have to disagree, the shares on offer to the staff are a reward for reaching targets. Setting up operations overseas is not cheap and are potentially fraught with difficulties. Having good staff incentivized to perform well is critical to successful performance and retaining staff. With regard to the buyback the sp was undervalued, with surplus cash a lways a good time to buy.

With regard to the number of shares in issue, I would be happy with a share split, say five for one. That's down to the CEO and the board. they know what they are doing, so happy to leave it to them.

Share buybacks are fine for LTI if the shares ae being cancelled. Is that true here? Not so great if they are being held in treasury to be distributed for employee share options or for executive bonuses. Personally would have preferred an increased dividend or let the SP drift a bit longer so we could buy cheaper shares ourselves.

Yep I'm eagerly awaiting the prospectus. Re. Share buyback quantities, they've purchased 566k shares in the 58 trading days since the buyback commenced, so just under 10k per day. At that rate they would buy back just over 5% of the company per annum. Given the ~85% institutional holding here that is massive.