In early April, Saga (SAGA) dramatically overhauled its growth strategy as it sought to address the continued commoditisation of the insurance market. It cut its final dividend to just 1p, a sixth of the previous year’s payment, while taking a £310m impairment and warning of profitability “significantly below” previous years. This led to a sharp drop in the share price, closing the day down 37 per cent on the previous day’s closing price.
Such a share price drop is hardly surprising, but some clearly felt the reaction was overblown – a number of directors bought up shares at the depressed price, signalling faith in the group’s future prospects. Just a few weeks after the announcement, directors Lance Batchelor, Ray King and James Quin each bought thousands of shares in the group.
Management’s new growth strategy will prioritise direct-to-consumer offerings, “moving the conversation from price to value”. Change will not come cheap, however, and the group has lowered adjusted pre-tax profit guidance to £105m-£120m for the year to January 2020, compared with £180m in the 2019 financial year.
Buys | |||||||
Company | Director | Date | No of shares | Price (p) | Value (£) | Holding (shares) | Holding (%) |
Alumasc | Graham Hooper (ceo) | 18 Apr 2019 | 36,266 | 94.5 | 34,271 | 519,534 | 1.438 |
Comptoir | Chaker Hanna (ceo) | 23 Apr 2019 | 4,750,000 | 10 | 475,000 | 22,585,833 | 18.412 |
Comptoir | Richard Kleiner (ch) | 23 Apr 2019 | 250,000 | 10 | 25,000 | 610,000 | 0.497 |
EMIS | Andrew Thorburn (ceo) | 18 Apr 2019 | 1,813 | 1,130.40 | 20,494 | 24,600 | 0.039 |
EMIS | Andrew Thorburn (ceo) | 18 Apr 2019 | 2,652 | 1,131.20 | 29,999 | 27,252 | 0.043 |
Independent Oil & Gas | Fiona MacAulay (ch) | 24 Apr 2019 | 200,000 | 10 | 20,000 | 200,000 | 0.059 |
Independent Oil & Gas | Andrew Hockey (ceo) | 24 Apr 2019 | 100,000 | 10 | 10,000 | 100,000 | 0.030 |
Independent Oil & Gas | Mark Hughes | 24 Apr 2019 | 100,000 | 10 | 10,000 | 278,000 | 0.082 |
Independent Oil & Gas | Esa Ikaheimonen | 24 Apr 2019 | 500,000 | 10 | 50,000 | 500,000 | 0.148 |
IndigoVision | Pedro Simoes (ceo) | 18 Apr 2019 | 5,000 | 143 | 7,150 | 28,184 | 0.375 |
IndigoVision | Max Thowless-Reeves (ch) | 24 Apr 2019 | 10,000 | 150 | 15,000 | 137,383 | 1.828 |
InnovaDerma | Kieran Callan (ceo) | 24 Apr 2019 | 4,800 | 97 | 4,656 | 15,800 | 0.109 |
Invesco Perpetual UK Smaller Companies Inv Tst | Bridget Guerin | 24 Apr 2019 | 3,884 | 512 | 19,886 | 3,884 | 0.012 |
Manchester & London Investment Trust | David Harris (ch) | 18 Apr 2019 | 2,000 | 506 | 10,120 | 12,000 | 0.043 |
Oxford BioMedica | Andrew Heath | 23 Apr 2019 | 2,711 | 668 | 18,109 | 46,688 | 0.071 |
Oxford BioMedica♥ | Andrew Heath | 23 Apr 2019 | 3,312 | 673 | 22,290 | 50,000 | 0.076 |
Personal Assets Trust | Robin John Angus | 18 Apr 2019 | 2 | 40,500 | 810 | 4,833 | 0.202 |
Personal Assets Trust | Frank Rushbrook | 24 Apr 2019 | 2 | 40,637 | 813 | 15,221 | 0.636 |
Personal Assets Trust | Frank Rushbrook | 24 Apr 2019 | 2 | 40,637 | 813 | 15,223 | 0.636 |
Personal Assets Trust | Frank Rushbrook | 24 Apr 2019 | 1 | 40,637 | 406 | 15,224 | 0.636 |
Personal Assets Trust | Frank Rushbrook | 24 Apr 2019 | 1 | 40,637 | 406 | 15,225 | 0.637 |
Personal Assets Trust | Frank Rushbrook | 24 Apr 2019 | 5 | 40,637 | 2,032 | 15,230 | 0.637 |
Personal Assets Trust | Iain Ferguson | 24 Apr 2019 | 3 | 40,637 | 1,219 | 2,412 | 0.101 |
Personal Assets Trust | Iain Ferguson | 24 Apr 2019 | 2 | 40,637 | 813 | 2,414 | 0.101 |
ReNeuron | Christopher Evans | 18 Apr 2019 | 10,000 | 228.7 | 22,870 | 254,605 | 0.805 |
Rotork♥ | Jonathan Davis (fd) | 18 Apr 2019 | 453 | 317.02 | 1,436 | 270,298 | 0.031 |
Saga | Lance Batchelor | 23 Apr 2019 | 32,365 | 56.8 | 18,383 | 229,140 | 0.020 |
Saga | Lance Batchelor | 23 Apr 2019 | 2,640 | 57.1 | 1,507 | 231,780 | 0.021 |
Seeing Machines | Rudolph Burger | 24 Apr 2019 | 250,000 | 3 | 7,500 | 856,383 | 0.025 |
Seeing Machines | Harold Carmichael | 24 Apr 2019 | 1,266,667 | 3 | 38,000 | 1,696,654 | 0.050 |
Seeing Machines | Jack Boyer (ch) | 24 Apr 2019 | 666,667 | 3 | 20,000 | 666,667 | 0.020 |
Seeing Machines | Luke Oxenham (cfo) | 24 Apr 2019 | 100,000 | 3 | 3,000 | 100,000 | 0.003 |
Seeing Machines | Catherine Hill | 24 Apr 2019 | 550,000 | 3 | 16,500 | 550,000 | 0.016 |
Time Out♥ | Anthony Elliott | 24 Apr 2019 | 5,000 | 101.7 | 5,085 | 1,827,347 | 1.357 |
Zenith Energy | Andrea Adorno | 18 Apr 2019 | 593,289 | 0.37 | 219,517 | 20,652,911 | 13.481 |
Zoo Digital | Phillip Blundell (cfo) | 23 Apr 2019 | 25,000 | 44.2 | 11,050 | 50,000 | 0.067 |
Sells | |||||||
Company | Director | Date | No of shares | Price (p) | Value (£) | Holding (shares) | Holding (%) |
Fisher (James) & Sons♥ | Mr Stuart Kilpatrick (fd) | 24 Apr 2019 | 2,550 | 1980 | 50,490 | 49,609 | 0.099 |
Fisher (James) & Sons♥ | Mr Stuart Kilpatrick (fd) | 18 Apr 2019 | 4,400 | 1,999.14 | 87,962 | 52,159 | 0.104 |
Sterling Energy | Michael Kroupeev (ch) | 18 Apr 2019 | 500,000 | 11.6 | 58,000 | 64,315,517 | 29.227 |
TOC Property Backed Lending Trust | Stephen Coe (ch) | 18 Apr 2019 | 20,000 | 100 | 20,000 | 10,000 | 0.037 |
*Placing/tender/open offer ♥Spouse/connected party |