Directors’ Dealings by Ben Jaglom

Canny directors continue to look to benefit from recent market volatility – a position exacerbated by the tragic recent events in Japan

Andrea Rafferty, the wife of Printing.com CEO Tony Rafferty, sold 500,000 shares in the AIM-quoted concern. Selling the shares at a price of 39.5p each, the sale netted a total of £179,500.

The company recently released a trading update for its results for the year to March in which it enthused that trading over the period was ‘in line with market expectations’ and that the performance in its Dutch subsidiary, Media Facility
Group BV, has ‘progressed well and exhibited year-on-year growth.’

At sector peer 4imprint, two directors took advantage of the group’s recent good news to enter into a bout of buying. The fully listed concern reported profits that had almost tripled to £8.1 million (2009: £2.83 million) on sales up 19 per cent to £200.8 million. Following the results, chairman John Poulter acquired 10,000 shares at 261p a share, worth £26,100. He was joined a few days later by finance director Gillian Davies, who purchased 3,500 shares at a price of 265p – a purchase that cost £9,275.

Pearson disposal
There was also a major transaction at Pearson, the owner of the Financial Times newspaper. Will Ethridge, the chief executive of its North American division, disposed of 33,000 shares, netting a total of £343,427. Pearson recently announced that it was making an offer for AIM-listed Education Development International, the provider of qualifications in a variety of disciplines from accounting to security in both the UK and other countries.

In the property sector, Helical Bar, the owner of the Trinity Square development in Nottingham, saw long-serving chief executive Michael Slade sell 122,830 shares at a price of 275p a share in a sale worth £377,783.
This year, Helical declared that it was acquiring a number of assets for a total of £55 million from Barts and The London Charity, with the deal having taken place together with its joint venture partner the Baupost Group.

Centaur purchases
Meanwhile, over at  business publisher Centaur Media, CEO Geoff Wilmot snapped up a total of 25,000 shares at 67p a share. This year, Centaur released a set of interim results for the six months to December in which it pared losses by £100,000 to £1.6 million on turnover up 15.1 per cent to £27.5 million.

Action also picked up  at private equity and venture capital group 3i. University of Nottingham graduate and chief executive Michael Queen dipped into the market, snapping up 100,000 shares at 283.3p a share in a deal worth £283,333. 3i recently announced a board reshuffle in which non-executive director John Allan left to join the board of the Home Office, and was replaced by Jonathan Asquith, a non-executive director at both Ashmore Group and AXA UK.

At insurance heavyweight Beazley, Jonathan Gray, the head of the Property Group and a director who joined the company in 1992, sold a significant stake. Gray sold a total of 1.25 million shares at a price of 130p a share, in a sell-off that was worth £1.625 million.

Finally, there was a sell-off at AIM minnow and mineral explorer Sunrise Resources. Non-executive director Francis Johnstone sold one million shares at a price of 3.625p a share, earning £36,300 from the sale. The company, which has operations in countries including Canada, Ireland and Australia, recently provided an update in which it informed the market that it has successfully completed a programme of exploratory trenching at Derryginagh,
Ireland, while its Cue diamond exploration project in Western Australia is planning further drilling work this year.