The oilfield services industry has been under the cosh ever since it became obvious that global crude oil markets had moved into surplus - and a sizeable one at that. Market valuations, along with oil and gas capital budgets, have been in retreat. But in a sector prone to cyclic downturns, that has opened up entry points for investors willing to stomach near-term volatility for long-term gains.
Two directors of Petrofac (PFC) - chief financial officer Tim Weller and Marwan Chedid, head of the engineering & construction division - have no qualms on that score. The directors recently acquired 167,000 shares in aggregate, with Mr Chedid forking out £1.3m for his stake alone.
Petrofac's share price is down 37 per cent since this time last year, but the group still managed to increase its order backlog by a quarter in 2014. By the end of December, it stood at a record $18.9bn, although the ability of oil services companies to turn orders into profits has long been a sticking point for the industry. Nevertheless, one of the reasons we favour Petrofac is that a relatively high proportion of its contracts have been struck with national oil companies, which are generally viewed as more predictable.
| Buys | |||||||
| Company | Director | Date | No of shares | Price (p) | Value (£) | Holding (shares) | Holding (%) |
| Anglo Pacific * | Mark Potter | 27 Feb 15 | 27,500 | 80 | 22,000 | 127,500 | 0.077 |
| Anglo Pacific * | Robert Stan | 27 Feb 15 | 100,000 | 80 | 80,000 | 100,000 | 0.060 |
| Anglo Pacific * ♥ | Julian Treger (ce) | 27 Feb 15 | 5,362,599 | 80 | 4,290,079 | 6,561,988 | 3.958 |
| Anglo Pacific * ♥ | Mike Blyth (ch) | 27 Feb 15 | 50,000 | 80 | 40,000 | 70,600 | 0.043 |
| Capita | Martin Bolland (ch) | 27 Feb 15 | 8,500 | 1,164.91 | 99,017 | 71,500 | 0.011 |
| Capital & Regional | Hugh Scott-Barrett (ce) | 04 Mar 15 | 100,000 | 58 | 58,000 | 2,032,054 | 0.290 |
| Capital & Regional | Mark Bourgeois | 04 Mar 15 | 50,000 | 56.9 | 28,450 | 452,989 | 0.065 |
| Capital & Regional | John Clare (ch) | 04 Mar 15 | 100,000 | 58 | 58,000 | 692,599 | 0.099 |
| Capital & Regional ♥ | Louis Norval | 04 Mar 15 | 250,000 | 53.5 | 133,750 | 200,153,409 | 28.561 |
| Condor Gold | Mark Child (ch & ce) | 03 Mar 15 | 30,000 | 57 | 17,100 | 3,917,500 | 8.552 |
| CRH | Pat Kennedy | 26 Feb 15 | 2,000 | 1,829.84 | 36,597 | 2,000 | <0.001 |
| Devro | Gerard Hoetmer (ch) | 03 Mar 15 | 15,000 | 272 | 40,800 | 45,000 | 0.027 |
| Dialight | Bill Ronald (ch) | 02 Mar 15 | 7,500 | 726 | 54,450 | 25,850 | 0.080 |
| Dialight | Stephen Bird | 02 Mar 15 | 8,000 | 725 | 58,000 | 20,000 | 0.062 |
| Edinburgh Dragon Trust | Kathryn Langridge | 04 Mar 15 | 5,000 | 281.88 | 14,094 | 5,000 | 0.003 |
| Electrocomponents | Peter Johnson (ch) | 02 Mar 15 | 50,000 | 230.15 | 115,075 | 150,000 | 0.034 |
| Jelf | Chris Hanks | 03 Mar 15 | 19,989 | 125 | 24,986 | 19,989 | 0.023 |
| Laird | David Lockwood (ce) | 03 Mar 15 | 35,540 | 354 | 125,812 | 60,617 | 0.023 |
| Lamprell | John Kennedy (ch) | 03 Mar 15 | 66,594 | 105.9235 | 70,539 | 1,505,707 | 0.441 |
| Mariana Resources * | John Horsburgh (ch) | 26 Feb 15 | 1,250,000 | 1.6 | 20,000 | 6,849,501 | 0.898 |
| McColl's Retail | Sharon Brown | 03 Mar 15 | 7,000 | 157.43 | 11,020 | 17,471 | 0.017 |
| Melrose Industries | Christopher Miller (ch) | 04 Mar 15 | 335,715 | 284.075 | 953,682 | 14,203,260 | 1.427 |
| Melrose Industries | Liz Hewitt | 04 Mar 15 | 17,700 | 281.9 | 49,896 | 23,782 | 0.002 |
| Murray International Trust ♥ | D Hardie | 04 Mar 15 | 1,444 | 1,033.30 | 14,921 | 4,114 | 0.003 |
| Paddy Power | Gary McGann | 04 Mar 15 | 678 | 7,364 | 49,928 | 678 | 0.001 |
| Paddy Power | Michael Cawley | 04 Mar 15 | 4,000 | 7,410 | 296,400 | 4,000 | 0.008 |
| Pantheon International Participations | David Melvin | 02 Mar 15 | 3,000 | 1,302 | 39,060 | 3,000 | 0.009 |
| Petrofac | Marwan Chedid | 26 Feb 15 | 147,000 | 913 | 1,342,110 | 1,540,092 | 0.452 |
| Petrofac | Tim Weller (cfo) | 26 Feb 15 | 20,000 | 874 | 174,800 | 97,146 | 0.028 |
| Plant Impact * | David Jones (ch) | 04 Mar 15 | 144,000 | 41.125 | 59,220 | 822,571 | 1.028 |
| Plant Impact * | Martin Robinson | 04 Mar 15 | 48,000 | 41.125 | 19,740 | 284,768 | 0.356 |
| Poundland | Grant Hearn | 02 Mar 15 | 10,000 | 386.987 | 38,699 | 10,000 | 0.004 |
| Rank Group (The) | Sir Richard Needham | 26 Feb 15 | 21,100 | 188.37 | 39,746 | 21,100 | 0.005 |
| Rio Tinto | Paul Tellier | 27 Feb 15 | 414 | 3,169.29 | 13,121 | 21,436 | 0.002 |
| River and Mercantile | KJP Hayes (cfo) | 27 Feb 15 | 46,000 | 215.5 | 99,130 | 100,645 | 0.123 |
| River and Mercantile | KJP Hayes (cfo) | 02 Mar 15 | 46,000 | 215.5 | 99,130 | 146,645 | 0.179 |
| RM2 International | Ian Molson (ch) | 02 Mar 15 | 400,000 | 60 | 240,000 | 8,900,000 | 2.757 |
| RM2 International Ω ♥ | Ian Molson (ch) | 03 Mar 15 | 500,000 | 60 | 300,000 | 9,400,000 | 2.912 |
| Scapa | Martin Sawkins | 04 Mar 15 | 30,000 | 145.5 | 43,650 | 30,000 | 0.020 |
| Trinity Mirror | Jane Lighting | 04 Mar 15 | 10,000 | 195.97 | 19,597 | 34,800 | 0.014 |
| Tungsten Corp | Daniel Truell | 02 Mar 15 | 15,822 | 159 | 25,157 | 430,000 | 0.415 |
| Vela Technologies * | Andrew Laiker | 02 Mar 15 | 15,000,000 | 0.15 | 22,500 | 21,416,724 | 4.665 |
| Sells | |||||||
| Company | Director | Date | No of shares | Price (p) | Value (£) | Holding (shares) | Holding (%) |
Brammer Ω | Ian Fraser (ce) | 27 Feb 15 | 22,000 | 362 | 79,640 | 914,277 | 0.707 |
| Capital & Regional ♥ † | Louis Norval | 04 Mar 15 | 2,200,000 | 56.61 | 1,245,420 | 197,646,409 | 28.203 |
| Capital & Regional ♥ † | Neno Haasbroek | 04 Mar 15 | 2,200,000 | 56.61 | 1,245,420 | 181,803,825 | 25.942 |
| Cohort | Stanley Carter | 04 Mar 15 | 1,560,000 | 236 | 3,681,600 | 9,105,718 | 22.231 |
| Gooch & Housego | Paul Heal | 03 Mar 15 | 4,000 | 705 | 28,200 | 13,085 | 0.055 |
| InterContinental Hotels | Richard Solomons (ce) | 27 Feb 15 | 47,617 | 2,639 | 1,256,613 | 652,016 | 0.276 |
| InterContinental Hotels ♥ | Richard Solomons (ce) | 27 Feb 15 | 16,908 | 2,696 | 455,840 | 595,689 | 0.252 |
| Jupiter Fund Management ♥ | Philip Johnson (cfo) | 04 Mar 15 | 5,500 | 419.01 | 23,046 | 1,333,046 | 0.291 |
| MJ Gleeson | Christopher Mills | 02 Mar 15 | 160,000 | 350 | 560,000 | 13,455,000 | 25.057 |
| Paragon Group of Companies | Robert Dench (ch) | 27 Feb 15 | 20,000 | 430.35 | 86,070 | 30,000 | 0.010 |
| Paragon Group of Companies | Robert Dench (ch) | 27 Feb 15 | 20,000 | 428.66 | 85,732 | 50,000 | 0.016 |
| Paragon Group of Companies | Robert Dench (ch) | 27 Feb 15 | 10,000 | 428.74 | 42,874 | 70,000 | 0.023 |
| Paragon Group of Companies | Robert Dench (ch) | 27 Feb 15 | 30,000 | 428.09 | 128,427 | 80,000 | 0.026 |
| Paragon Group of Companies | Robert Dench (ch) | 27 Feb 15 | 7,000 | 427.95 | 29,957 | 110,000 | 0.036 |
| Pearson ♥ | Robin Freestone (cfo) | 04 Mar 15 | 260,000 | 1,423.70 | 3,701,620 | 244,283 | 0.030 |
| Stobart | Andrew Tinkler (ce) | 03 Mar 15 | 2,000,000 | 106 | 2,120,000 | 29,301,750 | 8.935 |
| * placing/tender/open offer ♥ spouse/connected party Ω ISA/SIPP/Trust † beneficial interest in the shares sold by Karoo Inv. Fund. | |||||||
