Dimitri Panayotopoulos, a non-executive director of British American Tobacco (BATS) just three months into his tenure, has parted with just over £100,000 in exchange for another 2,750 shares in the cigarette giant.
The timing of the purchase was slightly unfortunate, coming a few days before a Canadian court ruled that group subsidiary Imperial Tobacco Canada will need to stump up around £5.4bn in damages to settle a class action suit brought by disgruntled smokers in Quebec. The court ruled that Imperial, along with the Canadian arms of Philip Morris International and Japan Tobacco International, need to fork out a total of CAN$15.6m (£8.2m) to compensate the plaintiffs, who contend that the companies failed to make them aware of the health risks associated with smoking.
BATS says "there are strong legal grounds with which to challenge both the overall judgement, and to seek a stay of the provisional execution order" (which mandated a payment of CAN$1.13bn in case of appeal). But whatever legal wheeze BATS' lawyers come up with, the case underlines what is now an entrenched risk factor for the industry. Anti-smoking lobbies continue to ratchet up pressure on legislators - a point borne out by the successful campaign to introduce plain packaging for tobacco products in the UK from May of next year.
Buys | |||||||
Company | Director | Date | No of shares | Price (p) | Value (£) | Holding (shares) | Holding (%) |
AA | Andrew Blowers | 27 May 15 | 4,866 | 408.4 | 19,873 | 4,866 | 0.001 |
BlueRock Diamonds♥ | John Kilham | 27 May 15 | 100,000 | 11.4 | 11,400 | 400,000 | 1.269 |
Brammer | Andrea Abt | 21 May 15 | 5,000 | 315 | 15,750 | 5,000 | 0.004 |
British American Tobacco | Dimitri Panayotopoulos | 21 May 15 | 2,750 | 3,638.30 | 100,053 | 3,300 | <0.001 |
Capital & Regional♥ | Louis Norval | 21 May 15 | 750,000 | 57 | 427,500 | 201,573,237 | 28.765 |
Capital & Regional♥ | Ian Krieger | 22 May 15 | 100,000 | 59 | 59,000 | 100,000 | 0.014 |
Centrica | Ian Meakins | 26 May 15 | 720 | 277.3 | 1,997 | 15,477 | <0.001 |
Centrica | Margherita Della Valle | 26 May 15 | 643 | 277.3 | 1,783 | 18,488 | <0.001 |
Deltex Medical* | Julian Cazalet | 22 May 15 | 189,314 | 11 | 20,825 | 4,872,123 | 2.270 |
Eden Research♥ | Alex Abrey (cfo) | 26 May 15 | 510,000 | 14 | 71,400 | 1,038,160 | 0.674 |
Homeserve | Stella David | 21 May 15 | 10,450 | 430.6 | 44,998 | 28,138 | 0.008 |
Impax Environmental Markets | Julia Le Blan | 21 May 15 | 5,000 | 160.63 | 8,031 | 10,000 | 0.005 |
Inspired Capital | Jeremy Coombes (ce) | 21 May 15 | 535,000 | 14 | 74,900 | 2,890,206 | 1.319 |
Jarvis Securities | Nicholas Crabb | 27 May 15 | 1,000 | 390 | 3,900 | 5,000 | 0.045 |
Johnston Press | David King (cfo) | 21 May 15 | 9,000 | 158 | 14,220 | 20,000 | 0.019 |
Keller | Alain Michaelis (ce) | 22 May 15 | 10,008 | 999 | 99,980 | 10,008 | 0.014 |
Masawara | Stephen Folland | 22 May 15 | 20,000 | 51.88 | 10,375 | 20,000 | 0.016 |
McBride | Rik De Vos (ce) | 22 May 15 | 20,000 | 98 | 19,600 | 20,000 | 0.011 |
Oxford BioMedica | Dr. Andrew Heath | 21 May 15 | 100,000 | 10.6 | 10,600 | 1,100,000 | 0.043 |
Parkmead Group (The)* | Philip Dayer | 21 May 15 | 33,333 | 120 | 40,000 | 143,960 | 0.146 |
Parkmead Group (The)* | Ryan Stroulger (fd) | 21 May 15 | 20,833 | 120 | 25,000 | 158,557 | 0.160 |
Parkmead Group (The)* | Tom Cross (ch & ce) | 21 May 15 | 83,333 | 120 | 100,000 | 18,850,779 | 19.055 |
Premier Foods | Ian Krieger | 22 May 15 | 100,000 | 44.35 | 44,350 | 404,000 | 0.049 |
President Energy♥ | Peter Levine (ch & ce) | 22 May 15 | 350,000 | 11.75 | 41,125 | 167,167,272 | 34.861 |
Rank Group (The) | Clive Jennings (fd) | 21 May 15 | 25,000 | 205 | 51,250 | 25,000 | 0.006 |
Rank Group (The) | Henry Birch (ce) | 21 May 15 | 100,000 | 205 | 205,000 | 100,000 | 0.026 |
Rio Tinto | Paul Tellier | 27 May 15 | 228 | 2,881.38 | 6,570 | 22,116 | 0.002 |
Rosslyn Data Technologies | Hugh Cox | 22 May 15 | 10,000 | 14.125 | 1,413 | 9,554,910 | 12.665 |
SEPLAT Petroleum Development Company | Dr. Charles Okeahalam | 22 May 15 | 102,000 | 127.5 | 130,050 | 502,000 | 0.091 |
Sepura* | Gordon Stuart | 22 May 15 | 1,000 | 130 | 1,300 | 16,000 | 0.009 |
Sepura* | John Hughes (ch) | 22 May 15 | 13,364 | 130 | 17,373 | 53,364 | 0.029 |
Sepura* | Nigel Smith | 22 May 15 | 1,333 | 130 | 1,733 | 21,333 | 0.012 |
Sepura* | Steve Chamberlain (cfo) | 22 May 15 | 4,606 | 130 | 5,988 | 73,704 | 0.040 |
Stock Spirits♥ | David Maloney (ch) | 21 May 15 | 15,000 | 190.5 | 28,575 | 20,000 | 0.010 |
Synety | Simon Cleaver (ch) | 22 May 15 | 17,182 | 87 | 14,948 | 391,248 | 3.225 |
Tungsten Corp | Lincoln Jopp | 21 May 15 | 5,714 | 80 | 4,571 | 28,212 | 0.026 |
Tungsten Corp | Peter Kiernan | 21 May 15 | 2,857 | 80 | 2,286 | 185,056 | 0.171 |
Tungsten Corp♥ | Edmund Truell (ce) | 21 May 15 | 859,961 | 80 | 687,969 | 18,381,084 | 16.937 |
Sells | |||||||
Company | Director | Date | No of shares | Price (p) | Value (£) | Holding (shares) | Holding (%) |
Bank of Georgia Holdings | Mikheil Gomarteli | 27 May 15 | 15,000 | 1,929 | 289,350 | 105,601 | 0.267 |
Bodycote | DF Landless (fd) | 27 May 15 | 53,000 | 745.13 | 394,921 | 250,203 | 0.131 |
Daily Mail and General Trust | Stephen Daintith (fd) | 27 May 15 | 9,233 | 955 | 88,175 | 1,082 | <0.001 |
Daily Mail and General Trust | Stephen Daintith (fd) | 27 May 15 | 2,200 | 952 | 20,944 | 10,315 | 0.003 |
Daily Mail and General Trust | Lord Viscount Rothermere (ch) | 21 May 15 | 2,800,000 | 950 | 26,600,000 | 61,531,183 | 18.011 |
DCC | Fergal O'Dwyer (cfo) | 26 May 15 | 35,000 | 5,125 | 1,793,750 | 205,389 | 0.232 |
Euromoney Institutional Investor | PR Ensor (ch) | 21 May 15 | 550 | 1,200 | 6,600 | 175,368 | 0.137 |
Onesavings Bank | Stephen Wilcke | 21 May 15 | 2,000,000 | 298.66 | 5,973,140 | 999,711 | 0.411 |
Raven Russia* | Anton Bilton | 22 May 15 | 3,549,515 | 52 | 1,845,748 | 52,560,979 | 7.541 |
Raven Russia* | Colin Smith | 22 May 15 | 105,371 | 52 | 54,793 | 1,475,226 | 0.212 |
Raven Russia* | Glyn Hirsch (ce) | 22 May 15 | 579,351 | 52 | 301,263 | 8,110,951 | 1.164 |
Raven Russia* | Mark Sinclair (cfo) | 22 May 15 | 258,969 | 52 | 134,664 | 3,642,379 | 0.523 |
Raven Russia* | Richard Jewson (ch) | 22 May 15 | 19,083 | 52 | 9,923 | 267,170 | 0.038 |
Raven Russia* | Stephen Coe | 22 May 15 | 7,363 | 52 | 3,829 | 118,667 | 0.017 |
Real Estate Investors | Paul Bassi (ce) | 27 May 15 | 200,000 | 60.5 | 121,000 | 9,283,333 | 4.980 |
Share† | Gavin Oldham (ch) | 02 Jun 15 | 10,884,848 | 33.3 | 3,624,654 | c. 97,716,000 | 68.000 |
SThree | Justin Hughes | 21 May 15 | 75,000 | 385 | 288,750 | 429,197 | 0.337 |
SThree♥ | Justin Hughes | 21 May 15 | 6,500 | 385 | 25,025 | 395,857 | 0.311 |
*Placing/tender/open offer ♥Spouse/connected party ΩIsa/Sipp/Trust †Shares offered on market to fund 'Share Radio' venture. |