@MarsC and @Value101 He does it from time to time, I noticed...

@MarsC and @Value101

He does it from time to time, I noticed when I first came across the company.
It is strange.

In August he bought a whopping $4,000 worth of stock; in May, $2,000 worth; in March, $2,500; in February, $7,500 etc. etc., going back a few years.
(One Appendix 3Y announcement in 2014 revealed him buying just $537.16 worth of stock!)

Maybe he's trying to privatise the business by stealth, without paying a takeover premium
(It's going to take him a while, though, at the current rate).

It's almost as bizarre as the cryptic "COME FOR VALUE, STAY FOR MORE" wording that has come to be emblazoned one the cover of the two most recent Annual Reports. [*]

And the way the bulk of the chairman's (brief) commentary at the beginning of each Annual Report is - unashamedly it seems - simply copied and and pasted from the prior year, with just the relevant numbers changed for the current year, is also a curiously charming and endearing feature, I think. (No sense wasting valuable executive time composing some or other new positive spin .... although it is noted that the From the Chairman section in the FY2016 Annual Report did take on an element of freshness. Maybe the the commentary is naturally designed to have a 4 or 5 year shelf life, at which point the effort to pen something new becomes justified.)

Would that more company manager prioritise substance ahead of form in the style of ASW.


[*] With the words VALUE and MORE in bold font, for some esoteric reason. (If anyone can explain to me what this catchy, but quirky, catchphrase actually means, I'd be obligated.)