Surely?

Yes. Even today market is closed but look at what Crown have done. Stock manipulation at the very extreme https://www.businessdail...5076-3ilb1vz/index.html[/quote]

Guys were buying this stock coz of the buy back scheme announcement hence the price increase.Now they're using the price increase as the reason to cancel the buy back.Cant make this stuff up!

THE EXCHANGE BAR BELIEVES THE FOLLOWING STOCKS TO BE ON CLOSE WATCH AS AT 23.06.2018: arm, bamburi, barclays, britam, cables, carbacid, cargeneral, centum, crown, deacons, eabl, eapc, eveready, express, ftg, hf, home afrika, i&m, kapch, keno, kenre, kurwitu, kq, mumias, nbk, olympia, sameer, scbk, uchumi, unga, umeme

Buybacks are routinely used in many markets. Investors need to learn about why some firms engage in buybacks. A buyback should not be done at any price but at a sensible price. If the price exceeds the value determined by a set of criteria then the buyback doesn’t make sense for the firm.

At 84/- the reasons for the buyback don’t make sense at the moment.

So it's OK to hype up the share price then back track? Who's the biggest beneficiary of such monkey games?

@vvs read their statement just a few months ago as seen here below. CMA has left investors naked once again..

The current shareholding is 50+1 held by
Crown and affiliates so it was a complete con game to hype up the share price

Companies get the shareholders they deserve. Its up to the speculators to bring about the necessary revision in price especially given the change in circumstances. If they don't, then they must start behaving like long term investors by waiting for the NAV to approximate the fake share price in the long run and all through this they must pray that mgt executes like crazy in terms of financial performance. Alternatively, speculators on thus one should consider themselves victims of transfer of wealth to the real value investors... After all, this is the core function of stock makers. Regulators and management are not to blame in this one.

The Management/Board does not owe the speculators anything...
Warren Buffett has said he doesn't want "speculators" as shareholders but long-term owners who think beyond the next quarter.
He said a shareholder/investor should be OK with investing in firms that they will be comfortable in even if the stockmarket shut down for 10 years.

Back to Crown: My understanding is that the Board/Management did not promise anything from what I can see except a Buy back at around 57/-... This would reassure shareholders that Crown was willing to buy back upto 15% of the shares within the 18 month period should the price drop to 57.

I feel there are many firms that should institute Buyback programs at current prices [lower than intrinsic value]. This works better for cash-rich firms with little or no debt and the ability to generate cash.

Candidates include:
KenRe: Plenty of cash. Low P/B. Politics.
Centum: Low P/B but cash is tight so perhaps an option in the future
Kenol: P/B is not very high and cash will start flowing in but what's the ideal price for the buyback?
C&G: Low P/B. Cash is tight. There's also debt on the books. A sale of a property can reduce debt.
Unga: Low P/B but cash is tight. The Offer by Seaboard is like a Buyback of sorts.

Some banks and they missed a good chance in 4Q 2016 but there was a lot of uncertainty. Many were trading below P/B of 1 including Stanbic, NIC, I&M, etc. Some like Equity and KCB were trading at close to P/B of 1.

and KQ.