Sinarmas spends another S$80.5m on massive share buyback

INDONESIAN real estate group Sinarmas Land has bought back another large chunk of its own shares on the open market.

The mainboard-listed firm, controlled by the billionaire Widjaja family, purchased 141.07 million shares at between S$0.56 and S$0.575 apiece on Friday for a total sum of S$80.5 million, it said in a Singapore Exchange filing.

The top-end price of S$0.575 corresponds to an intraday high for the stock recorded at around 4.10pm on Friday afternoon going by Bloomberg data.

The total number of shares Sinarmas bought back likely included a massive single block of 137 million shares sold at S$0.57 at 4.14pm, according to data from shareinvestor.com.

That single block of 137 million shares works out to about 4.7 per cent of Sinarmas' shares outstanding.

The buyback on Friday came after Sinarmas forked out S$88.5 million or S$0.59 apiece to buy back 149.8 million shares on Sept 18. That number of shares amounted to around 4.9 per cent of the firm's issued capital.

Market commentators have raised questions about this transaction, asking where that 4.9 per cent block could have come from.

Sinarmas shares closed half a cent higher at S$0.565 on Friday.