Ninety One (N91) senior management have purchased close to £5m in the asset manager’s shares this month, after a July trading update confirmed a lift in its assets under management (AUM). The dealings were conducted via the ‘Forty Two Point Two’ vehicle, which is used by Ninety One’s top brass to build their stake in the company.
Ninety One joined the London and Johannesburg stock exchanges in March this year after demerging from financial services behemoth Investec. It invests in a range of asset classes including equities, fixed income and alternative assets. Its debut full-year results in May, which covered its 12 months to 31 March, revealed headline earnings that sat around 10 per cent ahead of market forecasts, although its AUM shrank 7 per cent to £103.4bn.
While pre-tax profits were up 11 per cent, Ninety One admitted that the blow dealt to markets by coronavirus in March had made its aggregate performance look “decidedly average” over one and three years. Only 39 per cent and 55 per cent of its mandates beat their benchmarks over these respective periods.
Market confidence has returned since the depths of March, and the manager’s AUM rose by 14 per cent to £118bn at the end of quarter running to 30 June. Forty Two Point Two owned around 20.3 per cent of Ninety One’s shares according to the July register, after which the vehicle engaged in a swathe of share purchases. The asset manager’s employee benefit trusts have been active in buying Ninety One shares too, with its Guernsey trust racking up around £2.7m in purchases last month.
FactSet-compiled consensus forecasts are for full-year 2021 earnings per share of 13.9p, rising to 15.7p in 2022.
| Buys | ||||||
| Company | Director/PDMR | Date | No. of shares | Price (p) | Aggregate value (£) | Comments |
| Ninety One | Hendrik Du Toit/Kim McFarland | 18 Aug 20 | 250,000 | 209.24 | 523,100 | Purchased by PCA |
| Ninety One | Hendrik Du Toit/Kim McFarland | 19 Aug 20 | 175,000 | 209.27 | 366,224 | Purchased by PCA |
| Ninety One | Hendrik Du Toit/Kim McFarland | 19 Aug 20 | 1,276,000 | 209 | 2,666,840 | Purchased by PCA |
| Diversified Gas & Oil | Melanie Little | 19 Aug 20 | 20,000 | 109.85 | 21,970 | |
| Ninety One | Hendrik Du Toit/Kim McFarland | 20 Aug 20 | 472,368 | 208.61 | 985,405 | Purchased by PCA |
| Bank of Georgia | Giorgi Pailodze | 20 Aug 20 | 4,158 | 789 | 32,813 | Average price |
| Fuller, Smith & Turner | James Fuller | 20 Aug 20 | 22,306 | 55.14 | 12,300 | |
| Stobart Group | Clive Condie | 21 Aug 20 | 185,000 | 28.5 | 52,725 | Residual interest of 0.03% |
| John Laing | Ben Loomes (ceo) | 21 Aug 20 | 26,361 | 283 | 74,602 | |
| Begbies Traynor | John May | 21 Aug 20 | 34,940 | 85.84 | 29,992 | |
| Ninety One | Hendrik Du Toit/Kim McFarland | 21 Aug 20 | 155,000 | 217.16 | 336,593 | Purchased by PCA |
| Sells | ||||||
| Company | Director/PDMR | Date | No. of shares | Price (p) | Aggregate value (£) | Comments |
| TBC Bank | Nikoloz Kurdiani | 20 Aug 20 | 10,000 | 864 | 86,400 | Average price |
| AO World | Chris Hopkinson | 20 Aug 20 | 75,000 | 200.9 | 150,675 | Sold by PCA |
| London Stock Exchange | Waqas Samad | 21 Aug 20 | 8,000 | 8,833 | 706,658 | |
| Smith & Nephew | Melissa Guerdan | 21 Aug 20 | 5,390 | 1,505 | 81,131 | |
| Bunzl | Andrew Mooney | 24 Aug 20 | 1,000 | 2,479 | 24,790 | Sold by PCA |
| Berkeley | Karl Whiteman | 24 Aug 20 | 12,000 | 4,568 | 548,202 |
