I don't know about the merits or otherwise of handing back 4...

I don't know about the merits or otherwise of handing back 4 cents a share to eligible shareholders.  For example, if a person held say 100,000 shares then there is a capital return of $4,000.  What then to do with the $4,000?  If you want to keep invested to the same extent in CHN then you go and buy another 36,000 shares in the company.  That's on the ;basis that the current 15cents a share will be trading at 11 cents after the refund.  So if enough shareholders think in this fashion a false demand is created as it is only the existing shareholders trying to buy back in to regain their level of investment in the company. And it's a fairly thinly traded stock anyway.

The annual report showed that there were 108 shareholders who held between 1 to 1,000 shares and 217 shareholders who held 1,001 to 5,000 shares.  Why not tidy up the register and buy up these mainly below marketable parcels of shares.  Or even have an on market buyback as the company ran a couple of years back.  That managed to prop up the share price to some extent for a while.

MM