A vote of faith from the top rarely hurts. Tungsten (TUNG) chief executive Edmund Truell has shelled out £734,000 for half a million shares in the electronic invoicing, analytics and financing company, increasing his stake to 15.9 per cent.
The purchase may be intended to settle investors' nerves: Tungsten's shares have tumbled about 60 per cent in the past six months amid concerns over the group's hefty investments. The Aim-listed group - which counts IBM, the US government and two-thirds of the FTSE 100 among its users - has struggled to staunch the share slide in what appears to have been a concerted shorting attack: its recent signing of Royal Caribbean Cruises and rollout of its new analytics service weren't enough.
First-half sales surged 10-fold to £10.2m, but pre-tax losses swelled to £14.8m due to one-off set-up costs and platform investments. Indeed, Tungsten spent more than £47m to acquire a British bank, expand its network and improve its infrastructure. The reward has been a steady stream of new buyers and suppliers: it now has 168 and 171,000 of each on its network.
Broker Canaccord Genuity expects EPS of 14.3p in 2017.
| Buys | |||||||
| Company | Director | Date | No of shares | Price (p) | Value (£) | Holding (shares) | Holding (%) |
| APC Technology * | Andrew Shortis | 19 Feb 15 | 113,636 | 22 | 25,000 | 113,636 | 0.125 |
| APC Technology * | Richard Hodgson (cfo) | 19 Feb 15 | 113,636 | 22 | 25,000 | 176,468 | 0.195 |
| Ashley House | Christopher Lyons (ch) | 19 Feb 15 | 50,000 | 3.95 | 1,975 | 176,500 | 0.303 |
| Ashley House | Jonathan Holmes | 19 Feb 15 | 140,000 | 3.65 | 5,110 | 2,088,736 | 3.582 |
| Ashley House | Antony Walters (ce) | 19 Feb 15 | 300,000 | 3.95 | 11,850 | 579,000 | 0.993 |
| Avingtrans | Roger McDowell (ch) | 25 Feb 15 | 30,000 | 104.5 | 31,350 | 2,406,409 | 8.687 |
| Centrica | Ian Meakins | 25 Feb 15 | 736 | 251.7 | 1,853 | 13,154 | <0.001 |
| Centrica | Lesley Knox | 25 Feb 15 | 808 | 251.7 | 2,034 | 13,919 | <0.001 |
| Centrica | Margherita Della Valle | 25 Feb 15 | 764 | 251.7 | 1,923 | 16,430 | <0.001 |
| Distil | Mark Quinn | 24 Feb 15 | 250,000 | 0.78 | 1,950 | 4,500,000 | 1.030 |
| Distil | Mark Quinn | 24 Feb 15 | 500,000 | 0.77 | 3,850 | 5,000,000 | 1.145 |
| Dods | Sir William Wells | 19 Feb 15 | 375,000 | 6.7 | 25,125 | 1,320,000 | 0.388 |
| Driver Ω | Alan McClue (ch) | 25 Feb 15 | 30,000 | 59.3 | 17,790 | 347,500 | 1.121 |
| Electric Word | Julian Turner (ce) | 23 Feb 15 | 100,000 | 3.25 | 3,250 | 12,750,275 | 3.128 |
| First Group | B G Wallace | 25 Feb 15 | 2,076 | 102.08 | 2,119 | 51,299 | 0.004 |
| First Group | Drummond Hall | 25 Feb 15 | 1,930 | 102.08 | 1,970 | 14,322 | 0.001 |
| First Group | Imelda Walsh | 25 Feb 15 | 1,250 | 102.08 | 1,276 | 8,636 | 0.001 |
| First Group | Mick Barker | 25 Feb 15 | 1,158 | 102.08 | 1,182 | 57,733 | 0.005 |
| First Group | Jim Winestock | 25 Feb 15 | 2,016 | 102.08 | 2,058 | 47,341 | 0.004 |
| First Group | John McFarlane (ch) | 25 Feb 15 | 11,141 | 102.08 | 11,373 | 132,820 | 0.011 |
| First Group | Warwick Brady | 25 Feb 15 | 2,709 | 102.08 | 2,765 | 32,439 | 0.003 |
| Gaming Realms * | Atul Bali | 19 Feb 15 | 1,000,000 | 20 | 200,000 | 1,000,000 | 0.512 |
| Gaming Realms * | Jim Ryan | 19 Feb 15 | 1,000,000 | 20 | 200,000 | 1,384,615 | 0.709 |
| Gaming Realms * | Michael Buckley (ch) | 19 Feb 15 | 1,400,000 | 20 | 280,000 | 18,000,000 | 9.223 |
| Gaming Realms * | Patrick Southon (ce) | 19 Feb 15 | 500,000 | 20 | 100,000 | 10,897,039 | 5.583 |
| Henderson Global Trust | A Lisser | 23 Feb 15 | 2,450 | 403.85 | 9,894 | 2,450 | 0.006 |
| Hogg Robinson | Paul Williams | 19 Feb 15 | 50,000 | 50.5 | 25,250 | 100,000 | 0.031 |
| Infrastrata * | Andrew Hindle (ce) | 24 Feb 15 | 875,000 | 4 | 35,000 | 8,297,625 | 5.459 |
| Infrastrata * | Ken Ratcliff (ch) | 24 Feb 15 | 50,000 | 4 | 2,000 | 154,000 | 0.101 |
| Infrastrata * | Maurice Hazzard | 24 Feb 15 | 50,000 | 4 | 2,000 | 69,326 | 0.046 |
| Infrastrata * | Stewart McGarrity (fd) | 24 Feb 15 | 1,000,000 | 4 | 40,000 | 1,000,000 | 0.658 |
| Infrastrata * | Alan Booth | 24 Feb 15 | 2,500,000 | 4 | 100,000 | 5,500,000 | 3.619 |
| Kerry Group | Philip Toomey | 24 Feb 15 | 2,000 | 4,581 | 91,629 | 3,000 | 0.002 |
| Lowland Investment Co Ω | KS Sternberg | 25 Feb 15 | 360 | 1,362 | 4,903 | 4,460 | 0.017 |
| Mid Wynd International Inv Trust | H Morgan | 20 Feb 15 | 3,000 | 322.3 | 9,669 | 10,000 | 0.042 |
| Origo Partners | Shonaid Jemmett-Page (ch) | 23 Feb 15 | 100,000 | 5.875 | 5,875 | 560,000 | 0.156 |
| Origo Partners | Lionel de Saint-Exupery | 23 Feb 15 | 100,000 | 5.875 | 5,875 | 560,000 | 0.156 |
| Plastics Capital | AJ Walker | 23 Feb 15 | 9,650 | 110.6 | 10,673 | 220,296 | 0.623 |
| Plastics Capital ♥ | AJ Walker | 23 Feb 15 | 16,400 | 111.5 | 18,286 | 236,696 | 0.670 |
| Plastics Capital ♥ | AJ Walker | 24 Feb 15 | 1,435 | 115.4 | 1,656 | 238,131 | 0.674 |
| Renewable Energy Generation Ltd | David Crockford (fd) | 24 Feb 15 | 23,900 | 62.5 | 14,938 | 57,085 | 0.055 |
| RM | Patrick Martell | 23 Feb 15 | 5,000 | 153.969 | 7,698 | 5,000 | 0.006 |
| RPC | Dr Lynn Drummond | 25 Feb 15 | 823 | 595.32 | 4,899 | 823 | <0.001 |
| Severn Trent | John Coghlan | 20 Feb 15 | 400 | 2,029 | 8,116 | 400 | <0.001 |
| Smurfit Kappa | Tony Smurfit | 20 Feb 15 | 30,000 | 2,375.25 | 712,575 | 1,286,039 | 0.555 |
| Smurfit Kappa | Ian Curley (cfo) | 23 Feb 15 | 16,848 | 649.9 | 109,495 | 446,478 | 0.193 |
| Strategic Equity Capital ♥ | Richard Locke | 19 Feb 15 | 20,000 | 196 | 39,200 | 20,000 | 0.035 |
| Volex | Daren Morris (cfo) | 20 Feb 15 | 29,091 | 65.2 | 18,967 | 180,000 | 0.199 |
| Wilmington | Pedro Ros (ce) | 25 Feb 15 | 22,425 | 222 | 49,784 | 22,425 | 0.026 |
| Sells | |||||||
| Company | Director | Date | No of shares | Price (p) | Value (£) | Holding (shares) | Holding (%) |
| Ashmore ♥ | Thomas Shippey (fd) | 25 Feb 15 | 68,990 | 309.8 | 213,731 | 1,061,896 | 0.149 |
| Rathbone Brothers ♥ | Paul Chavasse | 19 Feb 15 | 960 | 2,200 | 21,120 | 101,525 | 0.212 |
| * placing/tender/open offer ♥ spouse/connected party Ω ISA/SIPP/Trust | |||||||
