Managing director Arvind Gupta was the biggest spender, buying 315,000 shares for a total of £126,000 in late July. This is but a drop in the ocean because this brings Mr Gupta’s total shareholding to 178.9m shares or 50.9 per cent of the £145m company. Finance director V Narayan Swami bought a more modest tranche of shares worth just less than £4,000 at the same time.
Early last month, OPG reported a 37 per cent rise in revenue and cash earnings of £12.6m, but the company remains in the very early stages of its development programme. A series of huge blackouts have wrought havoc in India this week, but OPG’s share price has remained steady and is still up by 25 per cent since the company reported its results.
New Tower chairman opens wallet
Jeremy Asher has placed his money where his mouth is with a surprising £2.4m purchase of New Tower shares in a private placement at 3p late last month. Mr Asher took over as chairman of the Africa-focused oil and gas explorer last November as part of a management shake up that saw former chief executive and chairman Peter Kingston exit both those roles. New chief executive Graeme Thomson, who arrived in June, picked up £150,000 of shares in the same placement to add to his 20,000,000 options exercisable at 3.025p apiece.
The placing comes after Tower managed to secure Spanish oil major Repsol as a farm-in partner for its prospective Namibian offshore licence. The companies hope to find some 9.3bn barrels of recoverable oil as well as significant amounts of gas in a high-risk, exploratory drill program mid-next year.
Director buys
| Company | Director | Date | No. of shares | Price (p) | Value (£) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Adalta Real | James Hill | 12 Jul 12 | 1,600,000 | 2.25 | 36,000 |
| BT | Jasmine Whitbread | 30 Jul 12 | 2,250 | 219.188 | 4,932 |
| Burberry | Stephanie George | 26 Jul 12 | 5,000 | US$20.384 | US$101,920 |
| Caledonia Investments | Robert Woods | 31 Jul 12 | 2,000 | 1424 | 28,480 |
| Cambria Africa | Ian Perkins | 26 Jul 12 | 65,000 | 12.4 | 8,060 |
| Cambria Africa | Paul Heber | 26 Jul 12 | 50,000 | 12.4 | 6,200 |
| Chemring | Richard Dellar | 25 Jul 12 | 2,321 | 280.01 | 6,499 |
| Communisis | Andy Blundell (ceo) | 26 Jul 12 | 15,000 | 32.9 | 4,935 |
| Communisis | Dave Rushton (md) | 26 Jul 12 | 6,549 | 30.18 | 1,976 |
| Consort Medical | William Jenkins | 26 Jul 12 | 1,000 | 693 | 6,930 |
| Dods | Sir William Wells | 27 Jul 12 | 195,000 | 6.5 | 12,675 |
| Europa Oil & Gas | Hugh Mackay (ceo) | 26 Jul 12 | 198,747 | 5 | 9,937 |
| Fidessa | John Hamer | 30 Jul 12 | 10,000 | 1408.55 | 140,855 |
| Global Energy Development | Mikel Faulkner | 24 Jul 12 | 15,000 | 82 | 12,300 |
| Greenko | Keith Henry | 24 Jul 12 | 20,000 | E0.005 | E10,000 |
| Halma | Daniela Barone Soares | 24 Jul 12 | 736 | 403 | 2,966 |
| Hangar 8 | George Rolls | 24 Jul 12 | 16,666 | 89 | 14,833 |
| Hogg Robinson | David Radcliffe (ceo) | 30 Jul 12 | 20,000 | 58.5521 | 11,710 |
| Invesco Perpetual Select Trust | David Rosier | 27 Jul 12 | 25,000 | 97.5 | 24,375 |
| Mithras Investment Trust | William Malby | 27 Jul 12 | 25,000 | 100.25 | 25,063 |
| Morgan Crucible | Victoire de Margerie | 25 Jul 12 | 2,000 | 243.1075 | 4,862 |
| OPG Power Ventures | V Narayan Swami | 25 Jul 12 | 10,300 | 37.87 | 3,901 |
| OPG Power Ventures | Arvind Gupta | 26 Jul 12 | 150,000 | 40 | 60,000 |
| OPG Power Ventures | Arvind Gupta | 27 Jul 12 | 165,000 | 40 | 66,000 |
| Petro Matad | Philip Vingoe | 26 Jul 12 | 500,000 | 7.63 | 38,150 |
| Petro Matad | George Watkins | 26 Jul 12 | 200,000 | 7.63 | 15,260 |
| Scientific Digital Imaging | Ken Ford | 25 Jul 12 | 100,000 | 9.875 | 9,875 |
| Senior | Charles Berry (ch) | 30 Jul 12 | 10,000 | 196.16 | 19,616 |
| Sepura | Steve Chamberlain (cfo) | 24 Jul 12 | 50,000 | 74.698 | 37,349 |
| Speedy Hire | Chris Masters | 30 Jul 12 | 75,000 | 24 | 18,000 |
| Synergy Health | Dr Richard Steeves (ceo) | 26 Jul 12 | 18,627 | 908 | 169,133 |
| Theo Fennell | Rupert Hambro | 26 Jul 12 | 150,000 | 8.25 | 12,375 |
| Theo Fennell | Alasdair Hadden-Paton | 27 Jul 12 | 120,000 | 8.25 | 9,900 |
| Theo Fennell | Theo Fennell | 27 Jul 12 | 120,000 | 8.25 | 9,900 |
| Tissue Regenix | John Samuel (ch) | 31 Jul 12 | 290,000 | 10.25 | 29,725 |
| Tower Resources * | Jeremy Asher | 30 Jul 12 | 80,000,000 | 3 | 2,400,000 |
| Tower Resources * | Graeme Thomson | 30 Jul 12 | 5,000,000 | 3 | 150,000 |
| Tower Resources * | Peter Taylor | 30 Jul 12 | 3,333,333 | 3 | 100,000 |
| Tower Resources * | Peter Blakey | 30 Jul 12 | 3,333,333 | 3 | 100,000 |
| Volex | David McKinney (coo) | 26 Jul 12 | 4,220 | 236 | 9,959 |
| Vp | Neil Stothard | 26 Jul 12 | 12,000 | 307 | 36,840 |
| Wincanton | Guy Elliott | 26 Jul 12 | 73,764 | 40.72 | 30,037 |
| Witan Pacific Inv Trust | Gill Nott | 24 Jul 12 | 12,500 | 193.5 | 24,188 |
| Witan Pacific Inv Trust | Sarah Bates | 31 Jul 12 | 12,500 | 196 | 24,500 |
| * Placing |
Director sells
| Company | Director | Date | No. of shares | Price (p) | Value (£) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Advanced Computer Software | Michael Jackson (ch) | 24 Jul 12 | 445,376 | 55 | 244,957 |
| Aveva | Richard Longdon | 27 Jul 12 | 50,000 | 1,792 | 896,000 |
| Euromoney Institutional Investor | DC Cohen | 25 Jul 12 | 25,000 | 767 | 191,750 |
| Moneysupermarket.com | Alan Cairns | 26 Jul 12 | 199,467 | 138.70 | 276,661 |
| Moneysupermarket.com | Darren Drabble | 30 Jul 12 | 70,000 | 141 | 98,700 |
| Rathbone Brothers | Richard Smeeton | 26 Jul 12 | 10,000 | 1,309 | 130,900 |
| Tesco | A Higginson | 25 Jul 12 | 132,203 | 313.62 | 414,615 |
Table compiled by Robert Ansted.
Key to abbreviations: ch = chairman; ce = chief executive; cfo = chief financial officer; fd = finance director; coo = chief operating officer; cs =company secretary; md = managing director
