Taking advantage of recent share price strength, Acal chairman John Curry offloaded £1.1m-worth of his stake in the electronic distribution firm. Acal recently reported a 6.3 per cent decline in profits before tax, following what was described as a "challenging" year. But the shares have performed robustly in the past few months, rising 56 per cent from their lows last November. Despite this sale, Mr Curry retains a substantial stake in Acal - worth some £14.8m at current prices.
Taylor Nelson Sofres's chief executive, Mike Kirkham, appears in both the purchases and sales lists this week. That is because he exercised share options and then used the proceeds to buy some more shares. His holding in the company has now increased. Mr Kirkham has timed his transactions to coincide with a large sale by group chairman Tony Cowley, who has a stated policy of gradually reducing his holding in the company.
GUS has been one of the best-performing constituents of the FTSE 100 index over the past three months, with its shares racing up 40 per cent and significantly outperforming the overall market. But chief executive John Peace and finance director David Tyler obviously think that this outperformance will continue now that the company has sold off its lacklustre home-shopping arm. GUS will now concentrate on Argos, which continues to perform excellently, and credit-checking business Experian. So, between them, the two directors have snapped up £608,000-worth of shares. Mind you, the pair can well afford their purchases - it has just been revealed that they shared a bonus payout of over £1m last year.
Chairman David Jackson has sold a slug of shares in Peterhouse, despite a strong trading statement from the support services group last month. The holding has been placed with one institution and there is no intention, at least for a year, to sell down his stake any further. Peterhouse, which provides infrastructure services principally to the telecommunications, power and railway industries, recently secured the position of preferred supplier by Network Rail for the maintenance of rail lines in the north-west and Scotland. The contract is expected to be worth £250m over five years, commencing next April. Peterhouse remains on track to deliver current year sales of £500m, profits of £20m and EPS of 29.1p.
