David Beever, chairman of Premier Foods (PFD), recently scooped up £100,000 worth of shares in the maker of Oxo and Mr Kipling cakes at just shy of 62p apiece, more than doubling his total stake in the company.
IC TIP:
Hold
at
61p
The move follows hot on the heels of March's capital-restructuring plan for the debt-laden company. This included a £353m equity issue, split between an eight-for-five rights issue at 50p each and an institutional placing, a £500m bond sale and a £272m credit facility. The share price plunged to its current level of 61p in response.
Mr Beever's purchase is a vote of confidence in the company; it suggests that Premier can now finally focus on delivering growth, launching new products and beefing up marketing. Against these hopes should be set the latest price spat between the biggest supermarkets, which places a great deal of pressure on Premier's brands, and the company's chunky pension deficit.
| BUYS | |||||||
| Company | Director | Date | No of shares | Price (p) | Value (£) | Holding (shares) | Holding (%) |
| Berkeley Group Holdings (The) ♥ | A Myers | 28 Apr 14 | 650 | 2,284 | 14,846 | 650 | 0.000 |
| Candover Investments | Malcolm Fallen (ce) | 28 Apr 14 | 12,500 | 521 | 65,125 | 17,500 | 0.080 |
| Ceramic Fuel Cells * | Alasdair Locke (ch) | 29 Apr 14 | 200,000,000 | 0.5 | 1,000,000 | 283,258,782 | 11.529 |
| CLS Holdings | Sten Mortstedt (ch) | 28 Apr 14 | 23,760 | 1,394 | 331,214 | 22,505,500 | 51.203 |
| Devro | Gerard Hoetmer | 30 Apr 14 | 20,000 | 213 | 42,600 | 30,000 | 0.018 |
| EG Solutions | DJ McIntyre (ch) | 29 Apr 14 | 400,000 | 50 | 200,000 | 400,000 | 2.429 |
| EG Solutions * | J Brougham | 29 Apr 14 | 60,000 | 50 | 30,000 | 60,000 | 0.364 |
| GB Group * | Dave Wilson (fd) | 28 Apr 14 | 18,182 | 137.5 | 25,000 | 201,350 | 0.170 |
| GB Group * | Charmaine Eggberry | 28 Apr 14 | 18,182 | 137.5 | 25,000 | 18,182 | 0.015 |
| GB Group * | David Rasche (ch) | 28 Apr 14 | 109,091 | 137.5 | 150,000 | 756,091 | 0.639 |
| GB Group * | Richard Law (ce) | 28 Apr 14 | 94,545 | 137.5 | 129,999 | 1,841,430 | 1.557 |
| GB Group * | Richard Linford | 28 Apr 14 | 36,364 | 137.5 | 50,001 | 286,364 | 0.242 |
| Globalworth Real Estate Inv's * | Dimitris Raptis | 24 Apr 14 | 50,484 | 590 | 297,856 | 160,848 | 0.386 |
| Globalworth Real Estate Inv's * | I Papalekas (ce) | 24 Apr 14 | 4,237,288 | 590 | 24,999,999 | 22,603,792 | 54.277 |
| Globalworth Real Estate Inv's * | E Alroy | 24 Apr 14 | 228,814 | 590 | 1,350,003 | 358,814 | 0.862 |
| Hansa Trust | Alex Hammond-Chambers (ch) | 25 Apr 14 | 1,900 | 952 | 18,088 | 2,400 | 0.030 |
| Hansa Trust | William Salomon | 24 Apr 14 | 2,650 | 945 | 25,043 | 2,115,869 | 26.448 |
| Huntsworth | Lord Myners of Truro | 29 Apr 14 | 200,000 | 65 | 130,000 | 200,000 | 0.062 |
| International Personal Finance | Cathryn Riley | 30 Apr 14 | 4,500 | 556.2967 | 25,033 | 10,114 | 0.004 |
| KSK Power Ventur | Keith Henry | 30 Apr 14 | 10,000 | 110.6 | 11,060 | 10,000 | 0.006 |
| Premier Foods | David Beever (ch) | 24 Apr 14 | 161,943 | 61.75 | 100,000 | 274,881 | 0.033 |
| PureCircle | William Mitchell (cfo) | 24 Apr 14 | 3,890 | 595 | 23,146 | 910,890 | 0.554 |
| Raven Russia | David Moore | 30 Apr 14 | 17,000 | 64.95 | 11,042 | 240,198 | 0.032 |
| Sinclair IS Pharma | Stuart Swanson | 29 Apr 14 | 154,225 | 30.75 | 47,424 | 4,522,854 | 1.040 |
| Sinclair IS Pharma | Stuart Swanson | 25 Apr 14 | 44,131 | 30.5 | 13,460 | 4,368,629 | 1.004 |
| Skyepharma * | Frank Condella (ch) | 29 Apr 14 | 30,000 | 191 | 57,300 | 61,115 | 0.058 |
| Skyepharma * | Andrew Derodra (cfo) | 29 Apr 14 | 78,534 | 191 | 150,000 | 78,534 | 0.075 |
| Skyepharma * | Peter Grant (ce) | 29 Apr 14 | 113,853 | 191 | 217,459 | 207,007 | 0.198 |
| Skyepharma * | Jean-Charles Tschudin | 29 Apr 14 | 168,150 | 191 | 321,167 | 305,728 | 0.292 |
| Skyepharma * | John Biles | 29 Apr 14 | 15,000 | 191 | 28,650 | 15,000 | 0.014 |
| Skyepharma * | Dr Thomas Werner | 29 Apr 14 | 24,444 | 191 | 46,688 | 44,444 | 0.042 |
| Spirit Pub Co | Tony Rice | 24 Apr 14 | 100,000 | 80.25 | 80,250 | 603,013 | 0.091 |
| St Modwen Properties | Richard Mully | 30 Apr 14 | 20,000 | 366 | 73,200 | 20,000 | 0.009 |
| SThree | Nadhim Zahawi | 30 Apr 14 | 3,182 | 405 | 12,887 | 19,170 | 0.015 |
| Thorntons | Michael Killick (fd) | 30 Apr 14 | 20,000 | 115.75 | 23,150 | 275,000 | 0.401 |
| Whitbread | Susan T Martin | 29 Apr 14 | 975 | 4,083.75 | 39,817 | 1,475 | 0.001 |
| Wishbone Gold * | Richard Poulden (ch) | 29 Apr 14 | 980,888 | 1.5 | 14,713 | 81,489,875 | 31.038 |
| Xeros Technology | John Samuel (ch) | 30 Apr 14 | 25,000 | 99 | 24,750 | 1,454,966 | 2.236 |
| Xeros Technology | Bill Westwater (ce) | 30 Apr 14 | 10,000 | 99 | 9,900 | 689,332 | 1.059 |
| ZincOx Resources * | G Dalal | 25 Apr 14 | 150,000 | 10 | 15,000 | 710,000 | 0.427 |
| SELLS | |||||||
| Company | Director | Date | No of shares | Price (p) | Value (£) | Holding (shares) | Holding (%) |
| Babcock International * ♥ | William Tame (fd) | 28 Apr 14 | 89,925 | 414.59 | 372,820 | 361,720 | 0.100 |
| Havelock Europa | Andrew Burgess | 25 Apr 14 | 1,250,000 | 23 | 287,500 | 7,300,000 | 18.945 |
| John Lewis of Hungerford | John Lewis | 30 Apr 14 | 5,000,000 | 2 | 100,000 | 72,466,678 | 38.805 |
| Jupiter Fund Management | Philip Johnson (cfo) | 24 Apr 14 | 56,390 | 382.0501 | 215,438 | 1,381,298 | 0.302 |
| London & Associated Properties | JA Heller (ce) | 24 Apr 14 | 171,674 | 50.4 | 86,524 | 1,673,581 | 1.976 |
| Northbridge Industrial Services | David Marshall | 24 Apr 14 | 125,000 | 455 | 568,750 | 1,875,000 | 10.782 |
| Seeing Machines † | Mike Roberts | 29 Apr 14 | 2,190,000 | 6.25 | 136,875 | 13,495,376 | 1.641 |
| Worldwide Healthcare Trust | Samuel Isaly | 24 Apr 14 | 350,000 | 1,245.61 | 4,359,650 | 3,600 | 0.008 |
| *Placing/tender/open offer ♥Spouse/connected party † sold to Ken Davis, Senior VP - Sales & Marketing | |||||||
