Dods (DODS) chairman Cheryl Jones has shown she means business by buying a large tranche of shares in the loss-making political events and publishing group. Since her appointment to the chair in late September, she has shelled out about £187,000 for 2.73m shares, more than doubling her stake in the business to 1.4 per cent.
Her purchases may be intended to restore confidence among investors after a management shake-up. Late September saw the finance director resign and Ms Jones promoted from non-executive director after just four months in the role. Shareholders may also be nervous about Dods' hefty technology investments as it tries to shift towards selling higher-margin, subscription-based services.
The company, which helps politicians, PR agencies and charities to make, understand or influence public sector policy, has been paring down its bloated events portfolio. That contributed to a pre-tax loss of £1.5m in the six months to the end of September. On the bright side, sales in the UK and EU monitoring businesses rose 9 and 17 per cent respectively, and Dods also landed a three-year contract to run the NHS Expo.
| Buys | |||||||
| Company | Director | Date | No of shares | Price (p) | Value (£) | Holding (shares) | Holding (%) |
| Aberdeen New Dawn | Susie Rippingall | 6 Jan 15 | 12,500 | 177.78 | 22,223 | 12,500 | 0.010 |
| Alliance Trust | Karin Forseke (ch) | 5 Jan 15 | 333 | 480 | 1,598 | 102,332 | 0.018 |
| Alliance Trust | J Hylands | 5 Jan 15 | 412 | 480 | 1,978 | 84,893 | 0.015 |
| Alliance Trust | Katherine Garrett-Cox (ce) | 5 Jan 15 | 1,148 | 480 | 5,510 | 608,011 | 0.110 |
| Alliance Trust♥ | Katherine Garrett-Cox (ce) | 5 Jan 15 | 449 | 480 | 2,155 | 608,371 | 0.110 |
| Alliance TrustΩ | Katherine Garrett-Cox (ce) | 5 Jan 15 | 811 | 480 | 3,893 | 606,863 | 0.110 |
| Ariana Resources | William Payne (cfo) | 7 Jan 15 | 300,000 | 0.87 | 2,610 | 3,968,289 | 0.614 |
| Ariana Resources | Michael de Villiers (ch & cs) | 7 Jan 15 | 500,000 | 0.87 | 4,350 | 14,300,000 | 2.214 |
| BlackRock Commodities Income | EW Warner | 7 Jan 15 | 12,000 | 88.6 | 10,632 | 32,000 | 0.030 |
| British Assets Trust | James Grover | 5 Jan 15 | 7,500 | 129.87 | 9,740 | 27,500 | 0.010 |
| Castings | GB Wainwright | 6 Jan 15 | 5,000 | 399.5 | 19,975 | 101,261 | 0.232 |
| Digital Barriers* | Bernie Waldron | 6 Jan 15 | 54,054 | 37 | 20,000 | 113,536 | 0.134 |
| Digital Barriers* | Sharon Cooper (fd) | 6 Jan 15 | 67,567 | 37 | 25,000 | 67,567 | 0.080 |
| Digital Barriers* | Colin Evans (coo) | 6 Jan 15 | 81,081 | 37 | 30,000 | 774,920 | 0.917 |
| Digital Barriers* | Dr Tom Black (ch) | 6 Jan 15 | 540,540 | 37 | 200,000 | 4,784,968 | 5.663 |
| Digital Barriers* | Paul Taylor | 6 Jan 15 | 27,027 | 37 | 10,000 | 75,794 | 0.090 |
| Digital Barriers* | Zak Doffman (ce) | 6 Jan 15 | 67,567 | 37 | 25,000 | 732,644 | 0.867 |
| Dods | Cheryl Jones (ch) | 6 Jan 15 | 2,000,000 | 7 | 140,000 | 4,825,000 | 1.420 |
| Finsbury Growth & Income Trust | JP Allard | 5 Jan 15 | 678 | 539.59 | 3,658 | 30,953 | 0.030 |
| KBC Advanced Technologies | Ian Godden (ch) | 5 Jan 15 | 25,000 | 89.5 | 22,375 | 226,000 | 0.277 |
| KBC Advanced Technologies | Ian Godden (ch) | 7 Jan 15 | 50,000 | 90 | 45,000 | 276,000 | 0.339 |
| Legal & General | Carolyn Bradley | 2 Jan 15 | 597 | 246 | 1,469 | 597 | <0.001 |
| Legal & General | Lizabeth Zlatkus | 2 Jan 15 | 727 | 246 | 1,788 | 9,629 | <0.001 |
| Legal & General | Richard Meddings | 2 Jan 15 | 727 | 246 | 1,788 | 727 | <0.001 |
| Legal & General | John Stewart (ch) | 2 Jan 15 | 3,146 | 246 | 7,739 | 317,878 | <0.001 |
| Legal & General | Lindsay Tomlinson OBE | 2 Jan 15 | 1,021 | 246 | 2,512 | 20,781 | <0.001 |
| Legal & General | Olaf Swantee | 2 Jan 15 | 1,371 | 246 | 3,373 | 7,095 | <0.001 |
| Legal & General | Rudy Markham | 2 Jan 15 | 1,157 | 246 | 2,846 | 243,843 | 0.004 |
| Legal & General | Stuart Popham | 2 Jan 15 | 664 | 246 | 1,633 | 49,183 | 0.001 |
| Nature | Nigel Sandy (ch) | 5 Jan 15 | 10,000 | 12.8 | 1,280 | 408,000 | 0.515 |
| Patagonia Gold | William Humphries (ce) | 6 Jan 15 | 201,512 | 3.65 | 7,355 | 31,094,211 | 2.971 |
| Rolls-Royce | Ruth Cairnie | 7 Jan 15 | 226 | 859 | 1,941 | 766 | <0.001 |
| Rolls-Royce | Ian Davis (ch) | 7 Jan 15 | 230 | 859 | 1,976 | 19,257 | 0.001 |
| Rolls-Royce | John Neill | 7 Jan 15 | 370 | 859 | 3,178 | 45,289 | 0.002 |
| Rolls-Royce | Sir Frank Chapman | 7 Jan 15 | 461 | 859 | 3,960 | 9,596 | 0.001 |
| Schroder UK Growth FundΩ | Carolan Dobson | 6 Jan 15 | 15,960 | 155.77 | 24,861 | 15,960 | 0.010 |
| Seneca Global Income & Growth Trust | J McCulloch | 5 Jan 15 | 15,000 | 135 | 20,250 | 15,000 | 0.038 |
| Servoca | Andy Church (ce) | 2 Jan 15 | 20,000 | 17.9 | 3,580 | 6,756,613 | 5.405 |
| Servoca | Andy Church (ce) | 2 Jan 15 | 30,000 | 17.4 | 5,220 | 6,736,613 | 5.389 |
| Servoca | Andy Church (ce) | 6 Jan 15 | 57,800 | 17.7 | 10,231 | 6,814,413 | 5.427 |
| Treatt | Richard Hope (fd) | 2 Jan 15 | 1,076 | 140 | 1,506 | 152,026 | 0.290 |
| Utilico Investments | G Cole | 7 Jan 15 | 6,592 | 113 | 7,449 | 6,592 | 0.007 |
| Utilico Investments | PI Burrows | 7 Jan 15 | 6,592 | 113 | 7,449 | 70,170 | 0.071 |
| ValiRx* | Gerry Desler (fd) | 6 Jan 15 | 5,000,000 | 0.2 | 10,000 | 17,733,921 | 0.531 |
| ValiRx* | Seppo Makinen | 6 Jan 15 | 5,000,000 | 0.2 | 10,000 | 6,273,387 | 0.188 |
| ValiRx* | Dr George Morris (coo) | 6 Jan 15 | 5,000,000 | 0.2 | 10,000 | 23,535,993 | 0.704 |
| ValiRx* | Dr Satu Vainikka (ce) | 6 Jan 15 | 5,000,000 | 0.2 | 10,000 | 28,113,714 | 0.841 |
| ValiRx* | Kevin Alexander | 6 Jan 15 | 5,000,000 | 0.2 | 10,000 | 13,034,843 | 0.390 |
| ValiRx* | Oliver de Giorgio-Miller (ch) | 6 Jan 15 | 5,000,000 | 0.2 | 10,000 | 7,444,411 | 0.223 |
| Whitbread | Nicholas Cadbury (fd) | 6 Jan 15 | 325 | 4,658.13 | 15,139 | 1,825 | 0.001 |
| Sells | |||||||
| Company | Director | Date | No of shares | Price (p) | Value (£) | Holding (shares) | Holding (%) |
| Avon Rubber | Stella Pirie | 2 Jan 15 | 10,000 | 757.5 | 75,750 | 42,000 | 0.135 |
| Cenkos Securities*† | Jeremy Allen | 7 Jan 15 | 145,959 | 188 | 274,403 | 1,481,957 | 2.326 |
| Cenkos Securities*† | Jim Durkin (ce) | 7 Jan 15 | 514,417 | 188 | 967,104 | 5,212,299 | 8.181 |
| Cenkos Securities*† | Joe Nally | 7 Jan 15 | 112,367 | 188 | 211,250 | 1,141,849 | 1.792 |
| Cenkos Securities*† | Paul Hodges | 7 Jan 15 | 529,480 | 188 | 995,422 | 5,364,486 | 8.420 |
| Consort Medical | Jonathan Glenn (ce) | 6 Jan 15 | 42,700 | 845 | 360,815 | 107,847 | 0.220 |
| Consort Medical♥ | Jonathan Glenn (ce) | 6 Jan 15 | 24,300 | 845 | 205,335 | 83,547 | 0.170 |
| CVS | Simon Innes (ce) | 6 Jan 15 | 9,430 | 446 | 42,058 | 546,475 | 0.928 |
| Gama Aviation | Nigel Payne | 5 Jan 15 | 32,899 | 345 | 113,502 | 0 | 0.000 |
| Kingfisher | Kevin O'Byrne | 5 Jan 15 | 26,000 | 337.13 | 87,654 | 410,698 | 0.017 |
| Mid Wynd International Inv Trust | Russel Napier | 6 Jan 15 | 9,500 | 301 | 28,595 | 264,325 | 1.112 |
| Univision Engineering | Stephen Koo (ch) | 6 Jan 15 | 1,500,000 | 0.97 | 14,550 | 279,703,700 | 72.901 |
| *Placing/tender/open offer ♥Spouse/connected party ΩIsa/Sipp †Sold under tender offer | |||||||
