RE:RE:This board Our first priority is ALWAYS to fund the business plan. I can't even envision a situation where we would reallocate funds from the business to the NCIB.
Beyond that, as long as we have debt, the NCIB is a relative choice between debt repayment and buybacks, which is directly related to the price of our equity (both in absolute terms vs our intrinsic value and relative to our direct comps).
In a perfect world, I would rather allocate funds to debt repayment vs. buybacks, as the cost of our debt is quite high.
However there is a point when it makes more sense to buy back shares vs debt when we can -- my hands have been information tied for the entire calendar year to date but this should be cleared this week.
after the debt is repaid, it will be a choice of buybacks vs dividends which is a different set of choices (we don't keep excess cash at any of our portfolio companies), and this is inherently less price sensitive than if we still had debt
in terms of tactics, the program will be used to get the best prices possible, and often that means keeping people on their toes a bit.
cheers,
akiba