In our weekly series, James Norris looks at directors buying and selling shares in their own companies over the last week.
- Directors exercise options in I3 Energy
- Non-exec buys 15k Chrysalis Investments shares
- Senior directors sell Savills shares
- Three senior directors sell Whitbread shares
- Mpac Group senior directors sell shares
I3 Energy (LON: I3E) director John Festival last Friday bought 354,500 shares at $0.44 for $91,230.90, and exercised options of 300,000 shares at 11.00p and 748,800 shares at 5.00p for £70,440 in total. On the same day, Director Neill Carsons also exercised options of 96,312 shares at 11.00p and 323,290 shares at 5.00p, worth almost £26,590 in total. Shares in I3 Energy, an Anglo-Canadian oil and gas company with strong portfolio of assets in Alberta and in the North Sea, have performed well over the past year, reflecting oil price strength and underinvestment in the sector at a time of growing demand, and were worth 2,825p, a return of 111.61% YTD and 276.67% over 12 months.
Chrysalis Investments (LON: CHRY) non-executive director Anne Ewing has bought 15,000 shares at 1.29p for £19,410.00. Chrysalis is an investment trust that funds both listed and non-listed entrepreneurs and high growth private companies up to and through IPO, and is managed by Jupiter Asset Management fund managers Nick Williamson and Richard Watts, who head up Jupiter’s UK Small & Mid Cap team. Chrysalis performance over the past two years has been stellar, gaining some 86% over 18 months, but at close of trading yesterday, the shares were worth 136p, a return of -44.49% YTD and -33.66% over 12 months.
Savills (LON: SVS) chief executive Mark Ridley and chief financial officer Simon Shaw have both sold 26,830 shares at 10.95p for £293,860 each. Political and economic uncertainties in the first quarter, aggravated by Russia’s war in the Ukraine, have left investors nervous, making the shares of this normally dependable company relatively cheap. Savills has reported that year-on-year profits surged 107%, revenue gained 23% and pre-tax profit jumped 120%. At close of trading yesterday, shares were worth 1,102p, a return of -21.73% YTD and -7.16% over 12 months.
Whitbread (LON: WTB) chief executive Alison Brittain has sold 12,875 shares at 27.17p each for a total of £349,756. On the same day, manging directors Mark Anderson, Simon Ewins and Simon Jones also sold shares (4,137, 5,312 and 4,732 respectively) at the same price. At the end of April, Whitbread reported a pre-tax profit of £58.2m, up from a pre-tax loss of £1bn, while group revenue rose 188% to £1.70bn. The company also announced it would resume paying dividends, declaring a final dividend of 34.7p a share. At close of trading yesterday, shares were worth 2,755p, a return of -8.01% YTD, and -13.53% over 12 months.
Mpac Group (LON: MPAC) chief executive Anthony Steels and group finance director William Wilkins have both sold shares in the company. Steels sold 93,237 shares at 394p each, for a total of £367,354, while Wilkins sold 53,278 shares at the same price, for £209,915. Group director Michael Van Frederici also sold 40,994 shares at the same price. In January, Steels reported that the packaging and automation technology group ended 2021 with a ‘strong closing order book and a healthy prospect pipeline’, providing an ‘encouraging’ outlook for 2022. At close of trading yesterday, its shares were worth 425p, a return of -15.15% YTD and -19.05% over 12 months.
