In our weekly series, James Norris looks at directors buying and selling shares in their own companies over the last week.
- Senior Peel Hunt board directors purchase 100k shares each
- M&G CFO purchases 125k shares
- Non-execs purchase Harbour Energy shares
- Non-execs purchase Halma shares
- Chief executive sells Renewi shares
Peel Hunt (LON: PEEL), the London mid- and small-cap specialist investment bank, has announced that chief executive Steven Fine and chief financial officer Sunil Dhall both bought 100,000 shares each at 112p, each paying £112,000. The previous week, independent non-executive director Maria Bentley also bought 21,104 shares at 114p per share. From last week, retail investors on the AJ Bell and Hargreaves Lansdown investment platforms can participate in initial public offerings and in company fundraising using Peel Hunt’s Rex Technology platform, in what the bank describes as a ‘democratisation of capital markets’. Peel Hunt was admitted for trading on AIM on 29 September 2021. At close of trading yesterday, the stock was priced at 113p, a return of -43.7% YTD.
M&G (LON: MNG) chief financial officer Kathryn McLeland bought 125,397 shares at 198p, paying £248,748. The investment manager in March announced a £500m share buyback, after generating £2.8bn of capital over two years, beating its £2.2bn target. The FTSE 100 group set a new target of £2.5bn capital generation by the end of 2024. The outgoing chief executive is expecting that 2022 will be an inflection point for the company. At close of trading yesterday, the stock was priced at 199p, a return of 0.10% YTD and -17% over 12 months.
Harbour Energy (LON: HBR) non-executive director Andy Hopwood has bought 10,000 shares 358p each, for £35,840, while non-executive director Margareth Ovrum bought 8,500 shares at the same price, for £30,415. Last week, the company announced a £200m share buy-back programme, buying more than 900,000 of its shares for cancellation. Harbour, the North Sea’s largest independent oil and gas producer, has reduced net debt by 26% to $1.7bn at the end of December, is on track to be debt free by 2023, while also embarking on an investment plan that includes $1.3bn of capital spending to develop mature assets acquired from Royal Dutch Shell and ConocoPhillips. At close of trading yesterday, the stock was priced at 356.3p, a return of 0.65% YTD and -12.6% over 12 months.
Halma (LON: HLMA) non-executive director Tony Rice bought 3,061 shares at 1,922p each, for a total of £58,847, while non-executive director Dharmash Mistry has bought 2,563 shares at 1,940p each, for £49,723. Halma, a global group of life-saving technology companies, has announced that group chief executive Andrew Williams has decided to retire next year after 18 years in the role, to be succeeded by chief financial officer Marc Ronchetti. At close of trading yesterday, the stock was priced at 1,919.5p, a return of -40% YTD and -28.9% over 12 months.
Renewi (LON: RWI) chief executive Otto de Bont has sold 11,226 shares at 680p each, for £76,342, a part sale of deferred annual bonus shares to cover withholding tax and commission. Renewi, a European waste-to-product business, in May announced the acquisition of Paro, an Amsterdam-based commercial waste and recycling business, its first since launch in 2017. Renewi aims to be the leading waste-to-product company in Europe’s most advanced circular economies. At close of trading yesterday, the stock was priced at 706p, a return of -6.74% YTD and 36.56% over 12 months.
