Johann Rupert’s investment company Reinet’s net asset value (NAV) declined by R6m in the quarter to end-June as the company repurchased shares as part of its buyback programme.The investment company said on Wednesday its net asset value of €6.6bn at the end of June was 0.1% lower than the previous quarter. Net asset value per share was €36.39 compared with €36.31 at the end of March.The group said offsetting these decreases are increases in the estimated fair value and gains realised on some of its listed investments, including TruArc Partners, Coatue funds and Prescient China funds.Reinet records its assets and liabilities in euro and the impact of the strengthening of sterling and the dollar against the euro during the quarter is included in the decrease of the NAV. In June, Reinet announced it was restarting its share buyback programme and intends to repurchase its ordinary shares for a maximum amount of €500m.The group said previously 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 R90bn on the JSE, had not been able to restart its share buyback programme. “It has, however, now become clear 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 plans to buy back as many as 16.5-million ordinary shares over a period until the 2027 AGM through successive and separate programmes.The company has embarked on an initial share buyback programme and will purchase ordinary shares at market price for €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 shareholders and the repurchased shares may be used for any legitimate purpose, including acquisitions.As of end-June, Reinet has bought back 559,649 shares for €13.8m.Commitments totalling €9m were funded during the quarter.The group said though geopolitical tensions, economic risks and market uncertainty remain, it has no direct exposure to Russia, Ukraine or the Middle East through its underlying investments or banking relationships, and has not experienced any significant direct impacts in respect of interest rate fluctuations or inflation. It added, however, that the Ukraine crisis, the conflict in the Middle East and other global flashpoints continue to have an impact on global fuel supplies and the availability and cost of other essential goods and services, leading to volatility in financial markets, with the risk that inflation may increase remaining. “The extent and impact of these worldwide factors remain uncertain,” it said.Business Day