Directors’ Dealings by Kathleen Hall

Recent plummeting markets have pulled share prices sharply lower, luring a number of directors into picking up shares in their own businesses in the wake of results 

Over at recruiter Kellan, co-chairmen John Bowmer and Tony Reeves each purchased 900,000 shares at 15.55p. These transactions took their stakes in the AIM-quoted business to 12.29 per cent each and came hot on the heels of an encouraging half-year turn to June from the company, which showed a swing from losses of £1.2 million into £1.3 million of profit, on sales of £25.4 million (2007: £8.3 million). These results demonstrated the strides made over the previous twelve months. The duo clearly see a bargain, with shares in the business having fallen from a 45p 52-week high to 17.25p, where the entire company is valued at only £15 million.

Knight rider
Elsewhere in the recruitment sector, Ian Knight, a non-executive at technical staffing business Morson Group, mopped up 10,000 shares at 114p – this followed the purchase of a further tranche of 10,000 shares at 115p only three days previously.

Knight’s decision to ride into the market and buy shares followed the announcement of robust results for the first half, which showed pre-tax profits up 6.7 per cent to £5.7 million, on turnover increased more than nine per cent to £212 million.

Knight clearly spies value, with analysts favourite Morson having been marked down from a year’s peak of 229.5p to 112p, despite trading strongly across all sectors and offering greater resilience than most staffing businesses.

Turrell tucks into Imaginatik
Directors operating in the IT sector are also taking advantage of low share prices, as Mark Turrell, chief executive of software provider Imaginatik, has increased his stake in the company to 59.34 per cent (including the shares owned by his wife, Dr Yvonne Lindow). This through the purchase of 47,674 shares at 4.20p, just below the current 4.25p market price, down from a 52-week peak of 6.38p.

Elsewhere in the sector, Luc Philips, director of anti-fraud software group Norkom – now worth £95 million on a 106p share price – snapped up 3,329 shares in the company at 99p. Following the purchase, he holds 92,000 shares or a relatively small 0.1 per cent of the business, whose shares were trading for as much as 135p earlier this year.

Buyers emerge
Companies involved with emerging markets have also experienced a round of bulk share buying by directors. For instance, Michael Baer, non-executive chairman of emerging markets focused equity investor Charlemagne Capital, has acquired 100,000 shares at 28.97p. A week earlier, Baer bought up 12,541 shares at 29p and in a separate batch again snared 102,800 shares at 28.91p.

At 28.5p, shares in AIM-quoted Charlemagne Capital are currently valued at less than half of their 76.5p peak of the past year and are rated by brokers as a buy.

Even after his spate of buying, Baer’s stake is still a relatively small 0.076 per cent.

Over at London Asia Chinese Private Equity Fund, chairman Robert Leighton has further upped his holding through the purchase of another 100,000 shares at 41p.

He now speaks for 390,000 shares or 0.78 per cent of the share capital, following two previous deals, in clusters of 100,000 shares and 190,000 shares, at 41p and an average of 31.4p per share respectively.

Disposals at antibody firm
Over at antibody manufacturer and retailer Abcam, a series of director sales have occurred. Chief executive Jonathan Milner sold one million shares at 480p, reducing his shareholding to just over seven million shares or 20.07 per cent. Chairman David Cleevely sold 250,000 shares at the same price, trimming his stake in Abcam to 3,319,760 shares or 9.46 per cent, while managing director Jim Warwick sold 15,000 shares to reduce his interest in the business to 2.43 per cent.