Directors’ Dealings by Jenny Lowe

Business Control Solutions director Alexander Anderson has forked out £364,499.99 on shares in the financial software firm, despite a profits warning from the AIM-quoted company back in April.

In this update, the London-based company conceded that sales and profits for the full year would disappoint, with trading conditions in the financial services sector having worsened and margins having come under pressure within its consultancy division.

In response, the company has been stripping out costs and insists ‘these measures, in addition to actions taken as part of a wider review of the business undertaken during the course of the past two years, mean that the company is in a position to protect its cash position’.

Shares in Business Control Solutions have been hit hard by the credit crunch, with the past few months proving the most volatile, and at the current bombed-out 1.62p, value the entire business at a shrunken £4.4 million.

Following Anderson’s purchase of shares at 1.5p, he now speaks for a substantial 29.9 per cent of the company.

Going wild
In another big move, Halfords CEO David Wild has spent a combined £198,200 on shares in the bike and car parts retailer, via the purchase of 20,000 shares at 305p and 40,000 shares at 343p. His buying spree followed better-than-expected full results from the fully listed company, which is showing creditable resilience during this recession, at a time when high street peers are under severe pressure.

Last year, Halfords managed to increase pre-tax profits by 2.4 per cent to more than £92 million, underpinning a 5.3 per cent annual dividend increase to 15.9p. Shares in the company plummeted to just 200p towards the end of 2008, but the price recently rallied to a 52-week high of 346p, before settling back at 308.75p.

Meanwhile, at another high street player, the suit retailer Moss Bros, non-executive director Debbie Hewitt picked up 111,111 shares at 18p each. Her purchase comes just weeks after chief executive Brian Brick and non-executive chairman David Adams each spent £8,500 on 50,000 shares in the company, paying 17p for the privilege. Moss Bros’s current market price is 19.5p, valuing the business at £18.4 million.

Media moves
Over in the media sector, William Whitehorn, chairman of international PR firm Next Fifteen Communications, has spent a total of £25,640 in two separate transactions, picking up 20,000 and 34,000 shares at 46p and 50p respectively.

Whitehorn’s move follows the recent termination of takeover talks between Next Fifteen and media rival Chime Communications. Shares in Next Fifteen had sparked into life in May, after the AIM-quoted venture confirmed speculation that it had been approached about possible offers.

Similarly, directors have been out in force at AIM-listed oil and gas producer Hydrodec. Non-executive deputy chairman Neil Gaskell and non-executive director Gill Leates both spent £21,000 purchasing 120,000 shares in the company within days of each other.

However, over at oil and gas producer Maple Energy, a number of directors offloaded shares during June. Executive directors Jack Hanks and Rex Canon both sold 548,112 shares in the firm for just over £1.3 million and chief financial officer Raymond Cochard sold 109,622 shares for £274,055.

The sell-off comes just days after the firm announced it had completed the sale of its interests in Aguaytia Energy for US$28 million.