Hi chaps, Just wondering what to make of the WAM buy-back. The upshot is that WAM is trading substantially below NTA, and WAM is saying that the decline in underlying assets had to be taken up as an accounting loss and is preventing the payment of dividends because the accounting loss wiped out retained earnings. So instead of paying a dividend, WAM is offering to buy-back 5% of your holding at a price of $1.38 per share. By comparison, WAM was trading at today at $0.92. On the face of it, someone offering to pay "over the odds" is a wonderful thing. But in the case, the purchaser is where the other 95% of my holding resides! Has Geoff Wilson figured a clever way to return cash shareholders even though the accounting loss wiped retained earnings, or is this all a bit too clever by half ? Seems to me I can sell my 5% and pick up a tax loss, then use the proceeds to (probably) buy back in at market. The buy-back reduces the number of shares on issue, so the remaining shares have more value. But OTOH the amount of cash in the company goes down. Who is the loser in this arrangement ???
