Directors’ Dealings by Jenny Lowe

Optimistic directors are continuing to seize opportunities to pick up shares in their own companies at their lowest ever ratings – while a rare few are even buying on the up.

With extremely volatile markets causing share prices to tumble across the board, a number of directors have picked up shares in their own businesses in the aftermath.

An adept move

At AIM-traded telecoms provider AdePT Telecom, chairman Roger Wilson purchased 20,000 shares priced at 12.5p, north of the current 11.5p market price and increasing his interest in the company to 3.61 per cent.

Not surprisingly, Wilson’s move came just as the company secured its finances as well as a voice and data contract with the Italian-style food and café chain Carluccio’s, anticipated to be worth £250,000 in revenues over the next two years.

At the beginning of February, the fixed-line, mobile and broadband provider had sured up its finance arrangements with a renewed £2 million overdraft facility and a £12.25 million three-year credit agreement with Barclays Bank.

Meanwhile, in the IT sector, the chief executive of Patsystems also dipped into the market following some good news. The electronic trading technology supplier is going from strength to strength, having lifted 2008’s annual profits by 23 per cent despite a slow first half.

Patsystems remains debt free and highly cash generative with a strong sales pipeline. Confident that the company will continue to provide greater returns for shareholders in 2009, chief executive David Webber has upped his holdings by a further 24,613 shares, paying 20p, roughly in line with the 19.75p market price. Webber now speaks for 0.49 per cent of Patsystems.

Savile bucks the trend

Over in the support services sector, a series of director deals have taken place. At Savile Group, director Jonathan Cohen acquired 34,500 shares at 43.5p, taking his interest in the company up to 14.51 per cent.

At a time when numerous companies are seeing their share prices plummet, Savile is bucking the trend. Its shares have increased from below 10p last summer to 48p.

Elsewhere, Hugh Aldous, a non-executive director of vocational training provider Melorio, acquired 98,000 shares at 76p each to top up his interest in the resilient business to 200,000 shares or 0.5 per cent.

In a recent trading update, the Melorio board maintained their confident outlook in the face of the tougher economic environment, saying a continued focus on the construction and infrastructure sectors should see it meet forecasts for the year to March.

At Stagecoach Theatre Arts,  joint managing director David Sprigg has purchased 50,000 shares for his personal pension. His holding in the performing arts school for children now stands at 28.1 per cent.

Amid the doom and gloom in the retail sector, which has seen a number of companies buckle under pressure, one director has certainly not been put off taking advantage of low share prices.

Since January 2007 Fieldbury, the sales marketing, distribution and customer service provider, has seen its share price tumble from over 30 pence to just 0.88 pence.

Director Rory Stear, however, remains confident and sees great value in the business, increasing his stake to 11.4 per cent through his purchase of 2.27 million shares at 0.95 pence.