Spread betting outfit London Capital (LCG) has had an eventful six months that included a profits warning, a number of bid approaches and the appointment of a new chief executive, Mark Slade.
Last October the company's share price collapsed from 63p to 37p after a profit warning, which saw an adjusted pre-tax profit of £7.1m in 2011 turned into a £200,000 loss last year. The company received bid approaches from GAIN Capital Holdings and City Index, both of which lapsed. The shares had spiked up to 51p on the bid speculation, but subsequently slid back to a low of 27p in late March.
Since then, the price has recovered steadily and, in the past week, Mr Slade bought 25,000 shares at 36p and a further 175,000 at 37p, having established an initial stake with the purchase of 50,000 shares at 32p in April. He has also been granted options on over 1.59m shares with a 30p exercise price and vesting in April 2016. Chief information officer William Newton purchased 150,000 shares at 43p to take his stake to 350,000 shares.
Potential cost savings of around £4m have been identified for this year, although there are likely to be costs associated with restructuring. Speculative buy.
Hikma boss banks gains
The opening of the post-results season trading window saw directors at Jordan-based Hikma Pharmaceuticals (HIK) take advantage of a spike in the share price of the branded and generic medicines company to offload shares.
Chief executive Said Darwazah led the field by selling 40,000 shares at an average price of 977p, raising £390,800. He still holds over 378,445 shares, or 0.19 per cent of the issued share capital. The sudden shift in Hikma's share price, which rose by 33 per cent in the first quarter this year, began with an announcement in March that Hikma had received expressions of interest in its injectables segment.
The share price topped out at 1,047p early last month. However, with no serious offer forthcoming, Hikma announced that the injectables segment would stay in the company. That sparked a drift back towards the 960p level where we advised readers to sell the shares in March. That leaves them rated on 20 times forecast earnings for 2013, a hefty premium to the pan-European large-cap pharmaceutical sector, so we would follow the lead of Mr Darwazah. Sell.
Buys
| Company | Director | Date | No of shares | Price (p) | Value (£) | Holdings (shares) | Holding (%) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Arden Partners | Mark Ansell | 13 May 13 | 61,750 | 40 | 24,700 | 111,750 | 0.5 |
| Aquarius Platinum | Jean Nel (ce) | 02 May 13 | 85,470 | 41.7645 | 35,696 | 609,970 | 0.126 |
| Burford Capital | Sir Peter Middleton (ch) | 03 May 13 | 40,000 | 110 | 44,000 | 100,000 | 0.049 |
| CLS Holdings | Thomas Lundqvist | 03 May 13 | 1,500 | 918 | 13,770 | 79,409 | 0.183 |
| Fenner | Richard J Perry (fd) | 02 May 13 | 2,000 | 337.098 | 6,742 | 613,000 | 0.316 |
| Fidessa | Mark Foster | 03 May 13 | 2,750 | 1812 | 49,830 | 2,750 | 0.007 |
| Genel Energy | Mark Parris | 08 May 13 | 21,235 | 904.9434 | 192,165 | – | 0.015 |
| Glencore Xstrata | Ian Strachan | 02 May 13 | 131,449 | 305 | 400,919 | 131,449 | 0.002 |
| Global Petroleum | Peter Taylor | 02 May 13 | 169,734 | 6.75 | 11,457 | 42,604,601 | 21.362 |
| Harvey Nash | Albert Ellis (ce) | 13 May 13 | 12,000 | 69.5 | 8,340 | 748,950 | – |
| Harvey Nash | Richard Ashcroft (fd & cs) | 13 May 13 | 10,000 | 69.5 | 6,950 | 225,509 | – |
| Harvey Nash | Simon Wassall | 02 May 13 | 46,940 | 75.75 | 35,557 | 261,673 | 0.356 |
| Harvey Nash | Albert Ellis (ce) | 02 May 13 | 69,910 | 75.75 | 52,957 | 736,950 | 1.003 |
| Harvey Nash | Richard Ashcroft (fd & cs) | 02 May 13 | 34,956 | 75.75 | 26,479 | 215,509 | 0.293 |
| Ideagen | Jonathan Wearing (ch) | 10 May 13 | 25,000 | 20.25 | 5,063 | 4,539,066 | 3.72 |
| Ideagen | David Hornsby (ce) | 10 May 13 | 100,000 | 21.35 | 21,350 | 8,384,833 | 6.88 |
| Ideagen | Leslie Paul (cto) | 10 May 13 | 30,000 | 20.565 | 6,170 | 7,298,640 | 5.99 |
| Ideagen | Alan Carroll | 10 May 13 | 35,000 | 20.125 | 7,044 | 204,000 | 0.17 |
| Kofax | Greg Lock (ch) | 10 May 13 | 40,000 | 321 | 128,400 | 723 | 0.81 |
| London Capital | Mark Slade (ce) | 09 May 13 | 175,000 | 37 | 64,750 | 250,000 | 0.47 |
| London Capital | Mark Slade (ce) | 08 May 13 | 25,000 | 36 | 9,000 | 75,000 | 0.14 |
| Melrose Industries | Miles Templeman | 08 May 13 | 60,000 | 254 | 152,400 | 692,343 | 0.05 |
| Nasstar | Angus McCaffery | 02 May 13 | 179,100 | 11.087 | 19,857 | 179,100 | 0.290 |
| Ortac Resources | Charles Wood | 09 May 13 | 2,000,000 | 0.24 | 4,800 | 2,000,000 | 0.09 |
| Ortac Resources | Paul Heber | 08 May 13 | 2,400,000 | 0.215 | 5,160 | 5,000,000 | 0.22 |
| Ortac Resources | Anthony Baulme (ch) | 08 May 13 | 2,000,000 | 0.215 | 4,300 | 165,373,463 | 7.1 |
| Patagonia Gold | C J Miguens (ch) | 03 May 13 | 7,000,000 | 13 | 910,000 | 125,072,109 | 14.620 |
| President Energy | Miles Biggins | 08 May 13 | 10,000 | 21 | 2,100 | 113,602 | 0.04 |
| President Energy | John Hamilton (ce) | 08 May 13 | 20,000 | 21 | 4,200 | 400,000 | 0.15 |
| President Energy | Richard Hubbard (coo) | 08 May 13 | 50,000 | 21 | 10,500 | 350,000 | 0.13 |
| President Energy | Dr David Jenkins | 08 May 13 | 50,000 | 21 | 10,500 | 125,000 | 0.05 |
| President Energy | David Wake-Walker (cs) | 08 May 13 | 40,000 | 21 | 8,400 | 293,804 | 0.1 |
| Primary Health Properties | W Hemmings | 07 May 13 | 587 | 335 | 1,966 | 4,939 | 0.006 |
| Rolls-Royce Holdings | Iain Conn | 07 May 13 | 217 | 1,140 | 2,474 | 25,614 | 0.001 |
| Scottish Investment Trust (The) | J Will | 07 May 13 | 5,470 | 573.93 | 31,394 | 6,000 | 0.005 |
| Thorntons | Paul Wilkinson (ch) | 02 May 13 | 200,000 | 78.5 | 157,000 | 1,200,503 | 1.756 |
| Trinity Exploration & Production | Joel "Monty" Pemberton (ce) | 08 May 13 | 28,500 | 108 | 30,780 | 522,815 | 0.551 |
| Vodafone | Anne Lauvergeon | 03 May 13 | 986 | 189.7689 | 1,871 | 29,922 | neg |
| Weir | Charles Berry | 13 May 13 | 2,000 | 2,384.93 | 47,699 | 2,000 | – |
| Xaar | Ted Wiggans (ops) | 10 May 13 | 2,000 | 527 | 10,540 | 4,634 | 0.01 |
Sells
| Company | Director | Date | No of shares | Price (p) | Value (£) | Holdings (shares) | Holding (%) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cairn Energy | Svein Ilebekk | 09 May 13 | 10,000 | 279.63 | 27,963 | 1,753,144 | 0.291 |
| Circle Holdings | Ali Parsa | 10 May 13 | 13,000 | 46 | 5,980 | 2,842,800 | 2.2 |
| Circle Holdings | Ali Parsa | 07 May 13 | 276,000 | 49 | 135,240 | 2,855,800 | 2.2 |
| Circle Holdings | A Parsadoust | 07 May 13 | 276,000 | 49 | 135,240 | 2,860,180 | 2.188 |
| Computacenter | Mike Norris (ce) | 03 May 13 | 41,438 | 438.2 | 181,581 | 1,432,155 | 0.930 |
| Harvey Nash | Tom Crawford | 10 May 13 | 200,000 | 68.228 | 136,456 | 4,536,467 | 6.18 |
| Hikma Pharmaceuticals | Said Darwazah (ce) | 07 May 13 | 40,000 | 977 | 390,800 | 378,445 | 0.19 |
| HSBC Holdings | I Mackay (fd) | 08 May 13 | 110,000 | 728 | 800,800 | 662,271 | 0.004 |
| Inmarsat | Rick Medlock (cfo) | 08 May 13 | 60,452 | 666 | 402,610 | 319,447 | 0.071 |
| Inmarsat | Andrew Sukawaty (ch) | 08 May 13 | 79,663 | 666 | 530,556 | 1,012,274 | 0.226 |
| Mondi | Andrew King | 09 May 13 | 30,000 | 881.35 | 264,405 | – | – |
| Mondi | John Lindahl | 09 May 13 | 2,100 | 883.5 | 18,554 | – | – |
| Mondi | John Lindahl | 10 May 13 | 1,900 | 897 | 17,043 | – | – |
| Northbridge Industrial Services | Michael Dodson | 08 May 13 | 100,000 | 370 | 370,000 | 89,250 | 0.57 |
| Prudential | Rob Devey | 08 May 13 | 186,064 | 1,164 | 2,165,785 | 219,022 | 0.009 |
| Reckitt Benckiser | Rakesh Kapoor (ce) | 03 May 13 | 28,250 | 4,642.32 | 1,311,455 | 313,619 | 0.044 |
| Smiths News | Jonathan Bunting (md) | 10 May 13 | 1,462 | 181.98 | 2,661 | 28,538 | 0.0155 |
| Smiths News | Jonathan Bunting (md) | 09 May 13 | 25,174 | 183.1 | 46,094 | 30,000 | 0.0163 |
| Smiths News | Jonathan Bunting (md) | 08 May 13 | 75,000 | 181.86 | 136,395 | 55,174 | 0.03 |
| Standard Life | Keith Skeoch | 07 May 13 | 13,014 | 391.3 | 50,924 | 1,009,207 | 0.043 |
| Telecity | Michael Tobin (ce) | 07 May 13 | 124,105 | 949.5 | 1,178,377 | 666,000 | 0.329 |
| Whitbread | Patrick Dempsey | 02 May 13 | 12,341 | 2,616.05 | 322,847 | 38,826 | 0.022 |
Table compiled by Mark Robinson.
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
