Johann Rupert’s investment company Reinet is to restart its share buyback programme and intends to repurchase its ordinary shares for a maximum amount of €500m.The group said late on Thursday that in the past few months it had been investigating a potentially very significant investment opportunity, which resulted in Reinet considering itself being in a “closed period”. As a result, the group, which is valued at about R93.5bn on the JSE, has not been able to communicate with individual shareholders or restart its share buyback programme. “It has, however, now become clear that the investment opportunity will not be pursued in the immediate future, resulting in the ‘closed period’ being lifted. This enables the company to restart the share buyback programme put in place previously,” it said.Reinet intends to buy back as many as 16.5-million ordinary shares over a period until the 2027 AGM through a number of successive and separate programmes.The company is commencing with an initial share buyback programme and will purchase ordinary shares at market price for an aggregate maximum amount of €75m subject to a maximum of 2.5-million ordinary shares from June 22 to August 19. The share repurchases are in accordance with the existing authority granted by the shareholders at the AGM in August last year. Reinet will seek to renew the buyback approval at its next AGM in August to proceed with future programmes.It said the purpose of the programme is to return value to the shareholders and the repurchased shares may be used for any legitimate purpose, including acquisitions.The Rupert family has declared its intention not to sell any shares during the duration of the buyback programme.In May the group reported that its net asset value declined by €314m, or 4.5%, to €6.6bn as of end-March, or €36.31 per share. Despite this, the group’s dividend of 43.5 euro cents per share was 17.6% higher than the previous year.During the year the group sold 100 per cent of its holding in Pension Insurance Corporation Group to Athora Holding for €3.3bn. In 2025 the group disposed of its stake in British American Tobacco (BAT), with the £1.22bn transaction ending the Rupert family’s nearly 80-year relationship with the tobacco industry.The disposal left the group with “significant” liquid funds, though Rupert said at the time that despite the group’s favourable cash position, it would not blindly pursue acquisitions, but rather grow its current investments.He said the group’s liquid funds are held in several currencies and placed with highly rated banks and short-term money market funds. “Recognising the potential for continued market volatility and global instability, we will maintain a measured approach to capital deployment, prioritising support for our current portfolio investments while selectively exploring new opportunities and partnerships that promise long-term capital growth,” he said previously.The Rupert dynasty’s association with the tobacco industry dates back to the 1940s when Anton Rupert founded the Voorbrand Tobacco Company, later known as Rembrandt.By the mid-20th century, Rembrandt had cemented its place as a top player in the industry, listing on the JSE in 1956 and branching out into banking, mining and financial services. By 1999 the family merged this tobacco giant, then the world’s fourth-largest tobacco maker, known as Rothmans International, with BAT, the world’s second-largest cigarette producer.Rupert said at the time of the disposal the company had over the years received dividends of more than €2bn from BAT and had used its shares in the tobacco producer as collateral to secure borrowing.With Kabelo Khumalo