Zoopla (ZPLA) founder Alex Chesterman risked sending mixed messages to investors after he agreed to remain the property portal's chief for the next few years, only to sell a quarter of his stake in the company a day later.
Mr Chesterman - who also founded Lovefilm and sold it to Amazon - netted £10.9m from the sale, which he has earmarked for tax payments and other dues. He still holds close to 12.8m shares, or about 3 per cent of the business, and is barred from further selling until late June 2016. Zoopla's board has proposed a new incentive scheme - tied to shareholder returns and capped at 7.5m shares - to reward his commitment.
He may need the motivation. Zoopla was hit by the launch of rival OnTheMarket earlier this year, which contributed to a 16 per cent decline in total property advertisers in the six months to March. But churn reverted towards historic levels in the four months to the end of July, and the number of agency members crept back to 12,550.
Broker Numis Securities expects EPS of 9.3p this financial year, rising to 12.4p in the year to September 2016 (7.2p in full-year 2014).
| Buys | |||||||
| Company | Director | Date | No of shares | Price (p) | Value (£) | Holding (shares) | Holding (%) |
| Brammer | Andrea Abt | 13 Aug 15 | 3,000 | 289.52 | 8,686 | 8,000 | 0.006 |
| Capital & Regional Ω | Hugh Scott-Barrett (ce) | 13 Aug 15 | 117,055 | 66 | 77,256 | 2,149,109 | 0.307 |
| Cineworld † | Anthony Bloom (ch) | 18 Aug 15 | 50,000 | 591 | 295,500 | 2,208,006 | 0.833 |
| Coats | Paul Forman (ce) | 13 Aug 15 | 200,000 | 27.73 | 55,460 | 535,933 | 0.038 |
| Cobham | Alan Semple | 14 Aug 15 | 5,000 | 284.9 | 14,245 | 5,000 | <0.001 |
| Development Securities | Richard Upton | 13 Aug 15 | 7,508 | 263 | 19,746 | 2,772,699 | 2.219 |
| ECR Minerals * | Stephen Clayson (ce) | 17 Aug 15 | 48,888,888 | 0.045 | 22,000 | 67,623,778 | 1.455 |
| Esure | Martin Pike | 14 Aug 15 | 40,000 | 235.5 | 94,200 | 40,000 | 0.010 |
| Fidessa | Andy Malpass (fd) | 18 Aug 15 | 210 | 1,901.38 | 3,993 | 83,780 | 0.219 |
| Games Workshop | Kevin Rountree (ce) | 13 Aug 15 | 4,000 | 572.25 | 22,890 | 19,945 | 0.062 |
| Gresham Computing ♥ | MME Royde | 14 Aug 15 | 25,000 | 98 | 24,500 | 6,089,664 | 9.630 |
| HSBC Holdings | Laura Cha | 17 Aug 15 | 5,200 | 560.94 | 29,169 | 5,200 | <0.001 |
| Kromek * | Dr. Arnab Basu (ce) | 18 Aug 15 | 72,000 | 25 | 18,000 | 2,072,000 | 1.361 |
| Kromek * | Prof Brian Tanner | 18 Aug 15 | 50,000 | 25 | 12,500 | 800,000 | 0.526 |
| Kromek * | Prof Max Robinson | 18 Aug 15 | 60,000 | 25 | 15,000 | 9,560,000 | 6.282 |
| Kromek * ♥ | Dr. Graeme Speirs | 18 Aug 15 | 1,475,685 | 25 | 368,921 | 16,268,415 | 10.690 |
| Laird | Kjersti Wiklund | 17 Aug 15 | 1,000 | 396.19 | 3,962 | 1,000 | <0.001 |
| Meggitt | Sir Nigel Rudd (ch) | 18 Aug 15 | 10,000 | 496.9 | 49,690 | 30,000 | 0.004 |
| Meggitt ♥ | Sir Nigel Rudd (ch) | 18 Aug 15 | 10,000 | 496.9 | 49,690 | 40,000 | 0.005 |
| Octopus Eclipse VCT | JKL McBride | 17 Aug 15 | 296,961 | 36.2 | 107,500 | 296,961 | 0.295 |
| Oxford Technology 2 Venture Capital Trust | R Roth (ch) | 17 Aug 15 | 15,000 | 20.5 | 3,075 | 58,901 | 0.867 |
| Persimmon | Rachel Kentleton | 18 Aug 15 | 1,203 | 2,077.31 | 24,990 | 1,203 | <0.001 |
| Princess Private Equity Holding | Richard Battey | 14 Aug 15 | 5,000 | 788 | 39,400 | 15,000 | 0.022 |
| Real Good Food | Pieter Totte (ch) | 19 Aug 15 | 92,000 | 56.25 | 51,750 | 2,716,124 | 3.895 |
| Red Leopard Holdings * | Howard Crosby | 19 Aug 15 | 35,624,999 | 0.1 | 35,625 | 36,840,277 | 6.284 |
| Red Leopard Holdings * | John May (ch) | 19 Aug 15 | 47,916,667 | 0.1 | 47,917 | 77,141,238 | 13.158 |
| Red Leopard Holdings * | Stuart Adam (fd) | 19 Aug 15 | 47,916,667 | 0.1 | 47,917 | 57,947,222 | 9.884 |
| Royal Dutch Shell | Euleen Goh | 13 Aug 15 | 5,000 | 1,890 | 94,500 | 5,000 | <0.001 |
| Stadium * | Chris Gill | 14 Aug 15 | 2,447 | 110 | 2,692 | 67,267 | 0.184 |
| Stadium * | Charlie Peppiatt (ce) | 14 Aug 15 | 2,490 | 110 | 2,739 | 47,490 | 0.130 |
| Stadium * | Joanne Estell (fd) | 14 Aug 15 | 1,684 | 110 | 1,852 | 17,184 | 0.047 |
| Stadium * | Nick Brayshaw (ch) | 14 Aug 15 | 6,325 | 110 | 6,958 | 169,052 | 0.463 |
| Tungsten Corp Ω | Nicholas Parker | 13 Aug 15 | 28,750 | 75.5 | 21,706 | 150,000 | 0.120 |
| Workspace | Stephen Hubbard | 14 Aug 15 | 8,150 | 975 | 79,463 | 8,150 | 0.005 |
| ZincOx Resources * | Gautam Dalal | 18 Aug 15 | 411,000 | 13 | 53,430 | 1,589,920 | 0.837 |
| Sells | |||||||
| Company | Director | Date | No of shares | Price (p) | Value (£) | Holding (shares) | Holding (%) |
| Aer Lingus | William Slattery | 18 Aug 15 | 26,295 | 183 | 48,120 | 0 | 0.000 |
| Aer Lingus | Colm Barrington (ch) | 18 Aug 15 | 300,000 | 183 | 549,000 | 0 | 0.000 |
| Aer Lingus | Nicola Shaw | 18 Aug 15 | 23,945 | 183 | 43,819 | 0 | 0.000 |
| Bankers Petroleum | Eric Brown | 17 Aug 15 | 20,000 | 135.4615 | 27,092 | 100,166 | 0.038 |
| CEB Resources | Cameron Pearce (ch) | 14 Aug 15 | 15,000,000 | 0.815 | 122,250 | 15,246,748 | 2.123 |
| CEB Resources | Jeremy King | 14 Aug 15 | 5,000,000 | 0.83 | 41,500 | 371,089 | 0.052 |
| Compass | Gary Green | 13 Aug 15 | 150,422 | 1,035.08 | 1,556,995 | 365,819 | 0.022 |
| First Quantum Minerals | Martin Rowley | 19 Aug 15 | 500 | 365.84 | 1,829 | 745,967 | 0.109 |
| First Quantum Minerals | Martin Rowley | 19 Aug 15 | 1,900 | 365.60 | 6,946 | 744,067 | 0.109 |
| First Quantum Minerals | Martin Rowley | 19 Aug 15 | 1,400 | 365.12 | 5,112 | 742,667 | 0.109 |
| First Quantum Minerals | Martin Rowley | 19 Aug 15 | 5,700 | 364.64 | 20,784 | 736,967 | 0.108 |
| First Quantum Minerals | Martin Rowley | 19 Aug 15 | 71,862 | 364.16 | 261,690 | 665,005 | 0.097 |
| Hill & Smith Holdings | Mark Pegler (fd) | 13 Aug 15 | 14,830 | 683 | 101,289 | 70,000 | 0.089 |
| Zoopla Property | Alex Chesterman (ce) | 13 Aug 15 | 4,250,000 | 257 | 10,922,500 | 12,768,080 | 3.054 |
| *Placing/tender/open offer ♥Spouse/connected party ΩIsa/Sipp/Trust †Sold by discretionary trust | |||||||
