It's been an eventful year for directors of Plus500 (PLUS). Around six months ago the specialist contracts for difference broker revealed that it had temporarily frozen thousands of UK accounts in order to comply with money laundering regulations. From peak-to-trough the share price lost 68 per cent of its value as the market struggled to digest the news.
IC TIP:
Hold
at
432p
Fast forward through to the end of November and directors of Plus500 were in the buyers' circle subsequent to news that a prospective $700m (£455m) merger agreement with PlayTech (PTEC) had hit the buffers. Charles Fairbairn and his wife Susan snapped up shares to the value of £262,446 at around 349p apiece, while fellow non-executive director Daniel King took an initial stake in Plus500 through a purchase of 13,259 shares at just over 339p each.
The PlayTech announcement was accompanied by news that Plus500 had declared a dividend of 21.21¢ a share for the six-month period to 30 June, together with a commitment to launch a $20m share buyback programme.
| Buys | |||||||
| Company | Director | Date | No of shares | Price (p) | Value (£) | Holding (shares) | Holding (%) |
| Aberdeen Japan Investment Trust | Neil Gaskell (ch) | 25 Nov 15 | 5,000 | 472.65 | 23,633 | 17,500 | 0.111 |
| Acorn Minerals | Anthony Brennan (ch) | 19 Nov 15 | 150,000 | 9 | 13,500 | 1,400,000 | 9.798 |
| Acorn Minerals | Anthony Brennan (ch) | 20 Nov 15 | 300,000 | 9.5 | 28,500 | 1,700,000 | 11.898 |
| Aldermore | Glyn Parry Jones (ch) | 23 Nov 15 | 95,057 | 263 | 250,000 | 781,488 | 0.227 |
| Amec Foster Wheeler | Samir Brikho (ce) | 20 Nov 15 | 50,000 | 458.4 | 229,200 | 1,975,674 | 0.507 |
| Anglo American † | Dr Byron Grote | 19 Nov 15 | 2,500 | 451.50 | 11,288 | 26,000 | 0.002 |
| Aurora Investment Trust | Lord Flight of Worcester (ch) | 23 Nov 15 | 13,000 | 155 | 20,150 | 43,000 | 0.414 |
| Berendsen | James Drummond (ce) | 19 Nov 15 | 10,000 | 1,045 | 104,500 | 10,000 | 0.006 |
| Bovis Homes | Ian Tyler (ch) | 23 Nov 15 | 2,000 | 893 | 17,860 | 2,000 | 0.001 |
| Canaccord Genuity Inc | Daniel Daviau | 24 Nov 15 | 45,000 | 266.63 | 119,985 | 1,165,651 | 1.139 |
| Canaccord Genuity Inc | David Kassie (ch) | 24 Nov 15 | 50,000 | 266.63 | 133,316 | 3,758,394 | 3.673 |
| De La Rue | Maria Da Cunha | 25 Nov 15 | 4,735 | 415.81 | 19,689 | 4,735 | 0.005 |
| Ebiquity | Nicholas Manning | 24 Nov 15 | 97,500 | 137.05 | 133,624 | 230,000 | 0.298 |
| Electra Private Equity | Edward Bramson | 24 Nov 15 | 3,484 | 3,591 | 125,110 | 10,822,923 | 29.682 |
| Firestone Diamonds | Keith Johnson | 20 Nov 15 | 85,000 | 16.88 | 14,348 | 85,000 | 0.027 |
| Flowtech Fluidpower | Malcolm Diamond (ch) | 23 Nov 15 | 10,000 | 108 | 10,800 | 35,000 | 0.081 |
| Flowtech Fluidpower | Nigel Richens | 23 Nov 15 | 10,000 | 108 | 10,800 | 35,000 | 0.081 |
| Flowtech Fluidpower | Sean Fennon (ce) | 23 Nov 15 | 20,000 | 107.25 | 21,450 | 209,000 | 0.485 |
| Flowtech Fluidpower Ω | Bryce Brooks (cfo) | 23 Nov 15 | 10,000 | 107.25 | 10,725 | 91,000 | 0.211 |
| Haydale Graphene Industries * | John Knowles (ch) | 24 Nov 15 | 12,500 | 160 | 20,000 | 149,214 | 0.982 |
| Haydale Graphene Industries * | Roger Smith | 24 Nov 15 | 12,500 | 160 | 20,000 | 288,455 | 1.898 |
| Haydale Graphene Industries * | Ray Gibbs (ce) | 24 Nov 15 | 26,875 | 160 | 43,000 | 469,929 | 3.092 |
| IS Solutions | Peter Simmonds (ch) | 24 Nov 15 | 50,000 | 97.75 | 48,875 | 141,500 | 0.388 |
| Ithaca Energy Inc | Jack Lee (ch) | 25 Nov 15 | 150,000 | 47.81 | 71,715 | 1,550,000 | 0.377 |
| John Laing Environmental Assets . | Richard Morse (ch) | 23 Nov 15 | 23,250 | 105.249 | 24,470 | 83,042 | 0.037 |
| JPMorgan Indian Investment Trust | Richard Burns (ch) | 24 Nov 15 | 5,000 | 482.11 | 24,106 | 95,000 | 0.090 |
| Landore Resources * | Richard Prickett (fd) | 24 Nov 15 | 1,700,000 | 0.6 | 10,200 | 9,955,899 | 1.601 |
| Landore Resources * | William Humphries (ce) | 24 Nov 15 | 10,000,000 | 0.6 | 60,000 | 49,914,119 | 8.025 |
| Mattioli Woods | Carol Duncumb | 20 Nov 15 | 2,180 | 639 | 13,930 | 6,280 | 0.025 |
| Mirada ♥ | José Sidro | 24 Nov 15 | 166,667 | 6 | 10,000 | 419,672 | 0.302 |
| Mirada ♥ | José Vazquez (ce) | 24 Nov 15 | 333,334 | 6 | 20,000 | 2,496,342 | 1.795 |
| Mirada ♥ | Matthew Earl | 24 Nov 15 | 166,667 | 6 | 10,000 | 265,667 | 0.191 |
| Mirada ♥ | Francis Coles | 24 Nov 15 | 166,667 | 6 | 10,000 | 739,153 | 0.532 |
| MITIE | Mark Reckitt | 24 Nov 15 | 4,000 | 294.68 | 11,787 | 4,000 | 0.001 |
| Ocean Wilsons Holdings | JFG Vieira (ch) | 23 Nov 15 | 17,500 | 775 | 135,625 | 170,100 | 0.481 |
| Plus500 | Daniel King | 24 Nov 15 | 13,259 | 339.38 | 44,998 | 13,259 | 0.012 |
| Plus500 | Charles Fairbairn | 24 Nov 15 | 70,247 | 349.3 | 245,373 | 245,108 | 0.213 |
| Plus500 ♥ | Charles Fairbairn | 24 Nov 15 | 4,892 | 349 | 17,073 | 250,000 | 0.218 |
| Real Good Food | Pieter Totte (ch) | 24 Nov 15 | 100,000 | 52.83 | 52,825 | 2,816,124 | 4.023 |
| Rolls-Royce Holdings | David Smith (cfo) | 25 Nov 15 | 7,736 | 603 | 46,648 | 20,304 | 0.001 |
| Rolls-Royce Holdings | Lewis Booth | 25 Nov 15 | 20,000 | 613 | 122,600 | 60,000 | 0.003 |
| Rolls-Royce Holdings | Sir Kevin Smith | 25 Nov 15 | 20,000 | 603 | 120,600 | 20,000 | 0.001 |
| Ryanair Holdings | Kyran McLaughlin | 24 Nov 15 | 5,625 | 1,377 | 77,456 | 225,000 | 0.017 |
| Smiths | Christopher O'Shea (fd) | 19 Nov 15 | 20,000 | 999.24 | 199,848 | 20,000 | 0.005 |
| Smiths | Sir George Buckley (ch) | 19 Nov 15 | 5,000 | 1,001.06 | 50,053 | 10,000 | 0.003 |
| South32 | Keith Rumble | 19 Nov 15 | 55,000 | 59.79 | 32,882 | 55,000 | 0.001 |
| South32 † | Peter Kukielski | 20 Nov 15 | 22,500 | 61.11 | 13,750 | 72,500 | 0.001 |
| Spectris | Dr John Hughes (ch) | 25 Nov 15 | 2,000 | 1,718.92 | 34,378 | 10,000 | 0.008 |
| Spectris | Ulf Quellmann | 24 Nov 15 | 652 | 1,699 | 11,077 | 652 | 0.001 |
| Synety | Sophie Tomkins | 24 Nov 15 | 22,596 | 88.5 | 19,997 | 22,596 | 0.167 |
| Synety Ω | Peter Simmonds | 24 Nov 15 | 22,500 | 89 | 20,025 | 78,055 | 0.578 |
| Tesco | John Allan (ch) | 19 Nov 15 | 50,000 | 172.15 | 86,075 | 183,951 | 0.002 |
| Tesco † | Dr Byron Grote | 23 Nov 15 | 15,000 | 171.47 | 25,720 | 67,500 | 0.001 |
| Tesco † | Dr Byron Grote | 23 Nov 15 | 22,500 | 171.47 | 38,580 | 52,500 | 0.001 |
| Urals Energy ♥ | Andrew Shrager (ch) | 20 Nov 15 | 500,000 | 2.7 | 13,500 | 1,590,500 | 0.630 |
| Victoria Oil & Gas * | Ahmet Dik | 20 Nov 15 | 227,951 | 56.6 | 129,020 | 227,951 | 0.208 |
| Sells | |||||||
| Company | Director | Date | No of shares | Price (p) | Value (£) | Holding (shares) | Holding (%) |
| BP Marsh & Partners | Brian Marsh (ch) | 24 Nov 15 | 171,000 | 152.25 | 260,348 | 18,334,401 | 62.860 |
| China Nonferrous Gold | Abuali Ismatov | 19 Nov 15 | 137,397 | 21.41 | 29,417 | 4,187,603 | 1.095 |
| Concurrent Technologies | David Evans-Hughes | 19 Nov 15 | 70,000 | 59.5 | 41,650 | 878,206 | 1.210 |
| Ebiquity | Nicholas Manning | 24 Nov 15 | 97,500 | 137 | 133,575 | 132,500 | 0.172 |
| Euromoney Institutional Investor | Diane Alfano | 19 Nov 15 | 3,038 | 957.76 | 29,097 | 74,968 | 0.058 |
| Euromoney Institutional Investor | Diane Alfano | 24 Nov 15 | 6,962 | 931 | 64,816 | 68,006 | 0.053 |
| Frontier Developments | David Braben (ce) | 25 Nov 15 | 750,000 | 240 | 1,800,000 | 17,160,953 | 50.330 |
| Inland Homes | Stephen Wicks (ce) | 19 Nov 15 | 1,500,000 | 67.37 | 1,010,550 | 14,737,332 | 7.267 |
| IS Solutions | Roger McDowell | 25 Nov 15 | 500,000 | 98.20 | 491,023 | 2,350,000 | 6.441 |
| Lok'n Store | Andrew Jacobs (ce) | 24 Nov 15 | 6,000 | 350 | 21,000 | 5,299,200 | 20.160 |
| Mattioli Woods | Ian Mattioli (ce) | 19 Nov 15 | 160,000 | 639 | 1,022,400 | 3,233,703 | 12.925 |
| *Placing/tender/open offer ♥Spouse/connected party ΩIsa/Sipp/trust †Depositary receipts | |||||||
