Imperial Brands’ (IMB) chairman, Mark Williamson, was in the buyers’ circle in the run-up to Christmas, snaffling just under £250,000-worth of shares in the tobacco giant.
The timing could be auspicious. Although the share price is 11 per cent down on this time last year, it was ‘risk-on’ for FTSE 100 constituents through much of 2017, with limited appetite for defensive plays. But with potential issues linked to market liquidity, if central banks turn more hawkish on monetary policy, expectations of a marked correction may tip the balance in favour of sin stocks such as Imperial.
The markdown is certainly difficult to fathom when you consider the progress the group has made through investment in new products to mitigate the decline in demand for traditional cigarettes, not least of which is the acquisition of UK-based Nerudia, a producer of e-liquid and novel nicotine delivery technologies.
Buys | |||||||
Company | Director | Date | No of shares | Price (p) | Value (£) | Holding (shares) | Holding (%) |
Aggregated Micro Power | Neil Eckert (ch) | 20 Dec 17 | 29,000 | 85 | 24,650 | 7,835,700 | 18.142 |
Alliance Trust | Christopher Samuel | 19 Dec 17 | 6,500 | 749.5 | 48,718 | 20,190 | 0.006 |
Aviva | Keith Williams | 20 Dec 17 | 10,000 | 503.5 | 50,350 | 10,000 | <0.001 |
Beazley | David Roberts | 18 Dec 17 | 41,300 | 485.7007 | 200,594 | 41,300 | 0.008 |
Britvic | John Daly (ch) | 18 Dec 17 | 7,000 | 794.85 | 55,640 | 15,000 | 0.006 |
D4t4 Solutions | Matthew Tod | 19 Dec 17 | 10,000 | 130 | 13,000 | 10,000 | 0.026 |
Direct Line Insurance | Penny James | 18 Dec 17 | 135,983 | 367.69 | 499,996 | 135,983 | 0.010 |
Driver♛ | David Kilgour (cfo) | 20 Dec 17 | 50,000 | 68 | 34,000 | 50,000 | 0.093 |
Electrocomponents | Bertrand Bodson | 19 Dec 17 | 10,000 | 620.43 | 62,043 | 20,000 | 0.005 |
Electrocomponents | Simon Pryce | 15 Dec 17 | 10,000 | 607.0688 | 60,707 | 10,000 | 0.002 |
Equiniti | Guy Wakeley (ce) | 20 Dec 17 | 10,000 | 285 | 28,500 | 121,327 | 0.033 |
Franchise Brands | David Poutney | 20 Dec 17 | 50,821 | 50 | 25,411 | 2,260,791 | 2.908 |
Globalworth Real Estate Inv's | Ioannis Papalekas (ce) | 15 Dec 17 | 300,000 | 900 | 2,700,000 | 23,941,545 | 18.498 |
Globalworth Real Estate Inv's | I Papalekas (ce) | 15 Dec 17 | 272,632 | 885 | 2,412,793 | 24,214,177 | 18.709 |
Go-Ahead Group | Patrick Butcher (cfo) | 19 Dec 17 | 3,300 | 1,522 | 50,226 | 7,663 | 0.018 |
Gocompare.com | Dr Ashley Steel | 19 Dec 17 | 47,833 | 103.75 | 49,627 | 47,833 | 0.011 |
Hiscox Ltd | Colin Keogh | 14 Dec 17 | 944 | 1,390 | 13,124 | 17,095 | 0.006 |
Hiscox Ltd | Anne Macdonald | 14 Dec 17 | 1,574 | 1,390 | 21,883 | 22,185 | 0.008 |
Hollywood Bowl | Ivan Schofield | 14 Dec 17 | 50,000 | 204 | 102,000 | 50,000 | 0.033 |
Hollywood Bowl | Laurence Keen (cfo) | 14 Dec 17 | 9,706 | 204 | 19,800 | 1,492,031 | 0.995 |
Imperial Brands | Mark Williamson (ch) | 19 Dec 17 | 7,876 | 3,149 | 247,981 | 19,108 | 0.002 |
MedicX Fund♥ | Stephen le Page | 15 Dec 17 | 58,000 | 84.97 | 49,283 | 58,000 | 0.014 |
MedicX Fund | John Hearle | 14 Dec 17 | 11,870 | 84.25 | 10,000 | 43,869 | 0.010 |
National Express | Chris Davies (fd) | 14 Dec 17 | 3,000 | 367.20 | 11,016 | 3,000 | 0.001 |
Ramsdens | Stephen Smith | 19 Dec 17 | 11,227 | 179 | 20,096 | 43,121 | 0.140 |
Ramsdens♥ | Stephen Smith | 19 Dec 17 | 11,227 | 179 | 20,096 | 54,348 | 0.176 |
RHI Magnesita NV | John Ramsay | 19 Dec 17 | 2,130 | 3,987 | 84,917 | 2,130 | 0.005 |
RIT Capital Partners | Hannah Rothschild | 20 Dec 17 | 2,555 | 1,960 | 50,078 | 14,263,695 | 9.182 |
SDL | Glenn Collinson | 15 Dec 17 | 14,500 | 355.99 | 51,618 | 36,500 | 0.044 |
Smurfit Kappa | Ken Bowles (cfo) | 19 Dec 17 | 1,634 | 2,459 | 40,172 | 24,000 | 0.010 |
Solo Oil | Neil Ritson (ch) | 14 Dec 17 | 3,000,000 | 3.75 | 112,500 | 4,650,000 | 1.185 |
SSP♥ | Per Utnegaard | 20 Dec 17 | 7,100 | 676 | 47,996 | 7,100 | 0.001 |
Thruvision | Dr Tom Black (ch) | 19 Dec 17 | 1,513,709 | 15.49 | 234,474 | 11,349,444 | 6.873 |
TP ICap | Rupert Robson (ch) | 14 Dec 17 | 10,000 | 509.49 | 50,949 | 17,000 | 0.003 |
U and I | Rupert Robson (ch) | 15 Dec 17 | 25,000 | 181 | 45,250 | 75,000 | 0.060 |
Walker Crips ♥ | Lim Hua Min | 20 Dec 17 | 92,291 | 42.2 | 38,947 | 9,839,163 | 23.333 |
Zotefoams | Douglas Robertson | 20 Dec 17 | 5,416 | 459 | 24,859 | 5,416 | 0.012 |
Sells | |||||||
Company | Director | Date | No of shares | Price (p) | Value (£) | Holding (shares) | Holding (%) |
Carnival | Arnold Donald (ce) | 19 Dec 17 | 6,000 | 5,083 | 304,978 | 532,606 | 0.252 |
Derwent London | Hon RA Rayne (ch) | 18 Dec 17 | 10,000 | 3,072 | 307,200 | 4,164,703 | 3.731 |
First Derivatives | Graham Ferguson (cfo) | 19 Dec 17 | 22,647 | 3,985 | 902,483 | 100,000 | 0.392 |
Frenkel Topping† | Jason Granite | 14 Dec 17 | 744,772 | 58.5 | 435,692 | 0 | 0.000 |
GlaxoSmithKline♥ | Dr PJT Vallance | 18 Dec 17 | 32,974 | 1,309 | 431,666 | 139,357 | 0.003 |
GlaxoSmithKline | Dr PJT Vallance | 18 Dec 17 | 20,000 | 1,310 | 262,088 | 172,331 | 0.004 |
Paragon Banking | Alan Fletcher | 19 Dec 17 | 30,000 | 495.45 | 148,635 | 50,000 | 0.019 |
Safestyle UK | Steve Birmingham (ce) | 15 Dec 17 | 1,400,000 | 160 | 2,240,000 | 2,799,846 | 3.381 |
Scholium | Jasper Allen (ch) | 19 Dec 17 | 30,000 | 50 | 15,000 | 72,000 | 0.529 |
*Placing/tender/open offer ♥Spouse/connected party †Share buyback ♛ Sipp/Isa |