Charles Bligh, the boss of TalkTalk Telecom's (TALK) business division, must enjoy a challenge. He took on the role of security chief within weeks of the highly publicised cyber attack on the cut-price telco in October 2015. In a bid to win investors' trust, he has splurged almost £1.5m on roughly 618,000 shares in the group.
IC TIP:
Buy
at
200p
On the same day as his purchase, TalkTalk blamed the hack for the loss of at least 95,000 customers and £15m in sales in the third quarter. Management also pegged clean-up costs at £40m to £45m. But it remained confident that a second-half rebound would drive cash profits up at least 4 per cent this financial year. Accordingly, analysts at Raymond James expect EPS of 10.4p, rising to 16.8p for the year to March 2017 (8.2p in FY2015).
| Buys | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Company | Director | Date | No of shares | Price (p) | Value (£) | Holding (shares) | Holding (%) |
| 7digital | Paul McGowan | 29 Jan 16 | 250,000 | 13.25 | 33,125 | 250,000 | 0.231 |
| Arian Silver Corp * | Anthony Williams (ch) | 02 Feb 16 | 1,688,702 | 1.5 | 25,331 | 1,688,702 | 1.485 |
| Arian Silver Corp * | James Crombie | 02 Feb 16 | 416,665 | 1.5 | 6,250 | 566,665 | 0.498 |
| Arian Silver Corp * | Jim Williams (ce) | 02 Feb 16 | 1,000,000 | 1.5 | 15,000 | 1,500,000 | 1.319 |
| Arian Silver Corp * | Tom Bailey | 02 Feb 16 | 1,314,226 | 1.5 | 19,713 | 1,314,226 | 1.156 |
| Avon Rubber | Pim Vervaat | 01 Feb 16 | 1,000 | 816 | 8,160 | 1,000 | 0.003 |
| Babcock International | J Randall | 03 Feb 16 | 1,134 | 880.5 | 9,985 | 4,268 | 0.001 |
| Baillie Gifford Japan Trust | DP Kidd | 29 Jan 16 | 5,000 | 445.35 | 22,268 | 5,000 | 0.006 |
| Bankers Investment Trust ♥ | MWJ Thorne | 01 Feb 16 | 4,000 | 576 | 23,040 | 30,250 | 0.026 |
| Bellway | Denise Jagger | 02 Feb 16 | 250 | 2,734 | 6,835 | 1,250 | 0.001 |
| Coms | Mark Braund (ce) | 28 Jan 16 | 400,000 | 1.29 | 5,160 | 10,638,888 | 0.763 |
| Coms | Spencer Dredge (cfo) | 29 Jan 16 | 768,311 | 1.3 | 9,988 | 1,819,795 | 0.130 |
| Diageo | Alan Stewart | 02 Feb 16 | 1,060 | 1,899 | 20,129 | 2,560 | <0.001 |
| FirstGroup | Wolfhart Hauser (ch) | 28 Jan 16 | 80,000 | 92.91 | 74,328 | 264,558 | 0.022 |
| FirstGroup | Wolfhart Hauser (ch) | 29 Jan 16 | 20,000 | 87.65 | 17,530 | 284,558 | 0.024 |
| FirstGroup | Warwick Brady | 02 Feb 16 | 52,900 | 92.5 | 48,933 | 108,701 | 0.009 |
| Fusionex International | Calvin Chun | 02 Feb 16 | 2,000 | 160 | 3,200 | 8,666 | 0.018 |
| Fusionex International | Robin Taylor | 28 Jan 16 | 9,006 | 120 | 10,807 | 25,669 | 0.054 |
| Gable Holdings | Michael Hirschfield (fd) | 28 Jan 16 | 155,000 | 12.5 | 19,375 | 592,650 | 0.438 |
| Gable Holdings | William Dewsall (ce) | 28 Jan 16 | 200,000 | 12.75 | 25,500 | 25,043,967 | 18.507 |
| Grainger | Andrew Carr-Locke | 01 Feb 16 | 10,000 | 232.1 | 23,210 | 10,000 | 0.002 |
| Grainger | Helen Gordon (ce) | 01 Feb 16 | 53,786 | 232.4 | 124,999 | 53,786 | 0.013 |
| Hargreave Hale AIM VCT 1 | David Brock | 02 Feb 16 | 13,822 | 73.79 | 10,199 | 29,147 | 0.057 |
| Hunters Property ♥ * | Harry Hill (ce) | 28 Jan 16 | 7,000 | 75 | 5,250 | 75,005 | 0.265 |
| Koovs ♥ * | Anant Nahata | 29 Jan 16 | 9,200,000 | 25 | 2,300,000 | 12,822,283 | 28.568 |
| Koovs ♥ * | Lord Waheed Alli (ch) | 29 Jan 16 | 5,600,000 | 25 | 1,400,000 | 12,899,218 | 28.739 |
| Legal & General | John Stewart (ch) | 01 Feb 16 | 3,189 | 242.718 | 7,740 | 356,556 | 0.006 |
| Legal & General | Rudy Markham | 01 Feb 16 | 1,275 | 242.718 | 3,095 | 266,903 | 0.004 |
| McKay Securities | RS Grainger | 01 Feb 16 | 10,000 | 254.5 | 25,450 | 10,000 | 0.011 |
| Mortgage Advice Bureau | Nathan Imlach | 29 Jan 16 | 419 | 325 | 1,362 | 17,981 | 0.036 |
| Mortgage Advice Bureau | Richard Verdin | 29 Jan 16 | 364 | 325 | 1,183 | 14,051 | 0.028 |
| Northgate | AC Page (ch) | 01 Feb 16 | 5,000 | 332.1 | 16,605 | 10,000 | 0.008 |
| Paragon Group of Companies | Alan Fletcher | 28 Jan 16 | 22,930 | 327.07 | 74,997 | 82,930 | 0.028 |
| Paragon Group of Companies | Alan Fletcher | 28 Jan 16 | 8,782 | 318.8 | 27,997 | 91,712 | 0.031 |
| Paragon Group of Companies | Alan Fletcher | 28 Jan 16 | 5,332 | 318.78 | 16,997 | 97,044 | 0.033 |
| PayPoint | Nicholas Wiles (ch) | 29 Jan 16 | 10,000 | 797 | 79,700 | 35,000 | 0.051 |
| PJSC Lukoil | LA Fedun | 01 Feb 16 | 102 | 3,349.72 | 3,417 | 961,102 | 0.135 |
| Reconstruction Capital II | Mihai Radoi | 28 Jan 16 | 287,500 | 21.75 | 62,531 | 787,500 | 0.788 |
| ReNeuron | John Berriman (ch) | 02 Feb 16 | 318,476 | 3.14 | 10,000 | 1,043,476 | 0.033 |
| SVG Capital ♥ | Lynn Fordham (ce) | 28 Jan 16 | 47,218 | 565 | 266,782 | 531,024 | 0.332 |
| TalkTalk Telecom | Charles Bligh | 02 Feb 16 | 617,978 | 240.92 | 1,488,833 | 617,978 | 0.065 |
| TP | Phil Cartmell (ce) | 01 Feb 16 | 200,000 | 3 | 6,000 | 2,096,720 | 0.496 |
| TP | Simon Kings | 01 Feb 16 | 300,000 | 2.8 | 8,400 | 400,318 | 0.095 |
| Troy Income & Growth Trust | David Garman | 02 Feb 16 | 35,000 | 71.4 | 24,990 | 35,000 | 0.013 |
| Troy Income & Growth Trust ♥ | David Garman | 02 Feb 16 | 35,000 | 71.4 | 24,990 | 70,000 | 0.027 |
| TwentyFour Select Monthly Income Fund | Ian Martin | 29 Jan 16 | 10,000 | 88.4 | 8,840 | 35,000 | 0.024 |
| TyraTech Inc | Alan Reade (ch) | 01 Feb 16 | 250,000 | 2.699 | 6,748 | 14,033,620 | 6.420 |
| Witan Investment Trust | Andrew Bell (ce) | 02 Feb 16 | 5,000 | 734.5 | 36,725 | 125,000 | 0.062 |
| Sells | |||||||
| Company | Director | Date | No of shares | Price (p) | Value (£) | Holding (shares) | Holding (%) |
| Learning Technologies | Jonathan Satchell (ce) | 29 Jan 16 | 1,750,000 | 33 | 577,500 | 105,289,995 | 25.295 |
| Shawbrook | Steve Pateman (ce) | 29 Jan 16 | 30,282 | 300.2 | 90,907 | 560,187 | 0.224 |
| *Placing/tender/open offer ♥Spouse/connected party ΩTender offer | |||||||
