Going for a Songbird

David O’Connor, a recently-appointed non-executive director at Songbird Estates, has just spent £630,000 buying the company’s shares. Mr O'Connor co-founded a New York hedge fund that specialises in property securities, so his investment is a meaningful vote of confidence in the holding company that controls most of Canary Wharf Group.

We also upgraded Songbird 's shares to our buy list at the end of March, following a decent set of annual results. The company doesn’t pay a dividend and has a bewilderingly complex capital structure - including £3.2bn of net debt. But that debt is backed by a £4.5bn portfolio of prime office buildings around Canary Wharf's Canada Square, with very low vacancies. And there's good growth potential in the development pipeline for investors with a long-term view. Trading at a 39 per cent discount to book value and near all-time lows, the shares look too cheap.

- Stephen Wilmot

Rights and Issues manager buys father’s shares

Simon Knott, fund manager of the Rights and Issues Investment Trust , has purchased 93,000 shares in the trust, some 5.67 per cent of the total. His father, also Simon Knott, was chairman of the investment trust but died last year, leaving the shares to his wife. She has now sold some to her son and her daughter. It takes Mr Knott junior’s total holding to 118,000 shares.

David Bramwell has taken over as chairman of Rights and Issues, and because another director, Brian Beverley, recently retired, two new directors, David Best and Jonathan Roper have been appointed.

Rights and Issues is a split-capital investment trust with its shares divided between capital, income and preference shares. The trust usually invests at least 80 per cent of its assets in UK smaller companies. It has outperformed the FTSE Small Cap ex Investment Trust index over three, five and ten years, according to Morningstar

The portfolio is managed on a medium-term basis with a view to holding shares for three to five years to achieve a low investment turnover. This has minimised transaction costs resulting in a total expense ratio of 0.52 per cent - cheaper than some passive funds.

- Leonora Walters

Van de Ven skims some profits

Defensive favourite G4S is looking forward to a boost from the Olympics as analysts from Espirito Santo estimate it will bring in around £130m in additional revenue. The security giant continues to rumble along with group revenues up 4.7 per cent and pre-tax profits flat at £432m in the most recent full-year results.

Profits aren't secure everywhere though, as the cash solutions business suffers from the growth of electronic payment methods, sales inched ahead 2 per cent but margins slip from 11.7 to 10.5 per cent.

Europe also struggled, with revenues falling 1 per cent, driven by a 7 per cent fall in the cash solutions business. Regional chief executive Willem van de Ven has decided to offload 300,000 shares at 286p a piece. The shares are up on our long standing buy tip (234p, 4 September, 2008) and it is still a solid hold but it could be time to follow Mr Ven’s lead and skim some profits.

- John Ficenec

Director buys

Director sells

Table compiled by Robert Ansted.

Key to abbreviations: ch = chairman; ce = chief executive; cfo = chief financial officer; fd = finance director; coo = chief operating officer; cs =company secretary; md = managing director

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