What do they know that we don’t? Investors are wired to ask this question whenever a director splashes out on (or cashes out of) their own company, although it’s a query that has chased Petrofac (PFC) long before chief executive Ayman Asfari committed £10m of his own money to the group last week.
On one level, it’s a perpetual question for an oilfield services company. Unless you are on the executive committee, getting a proper handle on the quality and scale of tendering activity, or the way these contracts are likely to be accounted, is tough. That’s less of an issue in good times, but more of a problem when revenue visibility and order backlog are thinning, as recent results hinted.
As such, this stock purchase smells like conviction (as in confidence, of course). After all, Mr Asfari hardly needs more shares, and made the purchase soon after restrictions to his executive duties were lifted. That Chinese Wall was initially imposed last May, when the company was castigated by the watchdog for a lack of co-operation in the Unaoil probe. But after this purchase, should shareholders conclude that a settlement with the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) – the threat of which explains Petrofac’s lowly rating – might just be unfounded?
Buys | |||||||
Company | Director | Date | No of shares | Price (p) | Value (£) | Holding (shares) | Holding (%) |
Ariana Resources ♥ | Michael de Villiers (ch) | 15 Mar 18 | 2,000,000 | 1.33 | 26,600 | 42,000,000 | 3.963 |
Arix Bioscience | Jonathan Peacock (ch) | 20 Mar 18 | 90,000 | 225 | 202,500 | 685,056 | 0.508 |
Capital Drilling | David Abery | 16 Mar 18 | 100,000 | 38.9 | 38,860 | 300,000 | 0.222 |
Capital Drilling | David Abery | 16 Mar 18 | 200,000 | 39.3 | 78,500 | 200,000 | 0.148 |
Centaur Media | Neil Johnson (ch) | 21 Mar 18 | 100,000 | 50 | 50,000 | 100,000 | 0.069 |
Centaur Media | Swag Mukerji (cfo) | 21 Mar 18 | 40,000 | 49 | 19,600 | 75,883 | 0.053 |
Cineworld | Alicja Kornasiewicz | 16 Mar 18 | 25,000 | 248 | 61,991 | 75,000 | 0.005 |
Cineworld | Alicja Kornasiewicz | 15 Mar 18 | 50,000 | 248.6 | 124,295 | 50,000 | 0.004 |
Essentra | Mary Reilly | 21 Mar 18 | 7,500 | 452.9 | 33,968 | 7,500 | 0.003 |
Essentra | Paul Forman (ce) | 16 Mar 18 | 20,000 | 461 | 92,200 | 140,000 | 0.053 |
Essentra | Ralf Wunderlich | 21 Mar 18 | 38,700 | 452 | 174,924 | 91,000 | 0.035 |
Euromoney Institutional Investor | Tristan Hillgarth | 15 Mar 18 | 4,000 | 1,270 | 50,800 | 4,000 | 0.004 |
Hutchison China Meditech ♥ | Graeme Jack | 16 Mar 18 | 1,500 | 4,859.4 | 72,890 | 1,500 | 0.002 |
Impellam | Lord Ashcroft (ch) | 19 Mar 18 | 1,136,808 | 555 | 6,309,284 | 3,360,563 | 6.682 |
Jackpotjoy | Neil Goulden (ch) | 21 Mar 18 | 25,000 | 820 | 205,000 | 65,000 | 0.088 |
Jackpotjoy | Simon Wykes | 21 Mar 18 | 5,031 | 820 | 41,254 | 5,031 | 0.007 |
Menzies (John) | Philipp Joeinig | 21 Mar 18 | 30,000 | 649 | 194,700 | 50,000 | 0.060 |
Micro Focus International | Chris Kennedy (cfo) | 21 Mar 18 | 10,000 | 928 | 92,800 | 10,000 | 0.002 |
Micro Focus International | Darren Roos | 21 Mar 18 | 4,926 | 1,009.6 | 49,731 | 8,027 | 0.002 |
Micro Focus International | Kevin Loosemore (ch) | 21 Mar 18 | 20,156 | 1,006.1 | 202,779 | 748,045 | 0.172 |
Micro Focus International | Karen Slatford | 21 Mar 18 | 9,915 | 1,001 | 99,249 | 9,915 | 0.002 |
Micro Focus International | Stephen Murdoch (ce) | 21 Mar 18 | 5,390 | 920 | 49,588 | 5,390 | 0.001 |
Micro Focus International ♥ | Richard Atkins | 21 Mar 18 | 10,350 | 973.2 | 100,728 | 16,736 | 0.004 |
Netcall | Michael Jackson (ch) | 15 Mar 18 | 100,000 | 45 | 45,000 | 800,000 | 0.560 |
Nexus Infrastructure | Geoffrey French (ch) | 21 Mar 18 | 5,000 | 265 | 13,250 | 10,000 | 0.026 |
Petrofac | Ayman Asfari (ce) | 21 Mar 18 | 2,023,800 | 494.1 | 9,999,859 | 64,982,226 | 18.79 |
Renewi | Colin Matthews (ch) | 21 Mar 18 | 50,000 | 80 | 40,000 | 250,000 | 0.031 |
Shire | Thomas Dittrich (cfo) | 15 Mar 18 | 9,400 | 3,228.7 | 303,500 | 9,400 | 0.001 |
St James's Place | Iain Cornish | 20 Mar 18 | 6,500 | 1,136 | 73,840 | 6,500 | 0.001 |
Stratex International | Tim Livesey (ce) | 19 Mar 18 | 1,890,141 | 0.74 | 13,987 | 1,890,141 | 0.404 |
Symphony International Holdings | Anil Thadani | 16 Mar 18 | 52,951 | 83.9 | 44,401 | 65,955,090 | 13.445 |
Symphony International Holdings | Sunil Chandiramani | 16 Mar 18 | 39,713 | 83.9 | 33,301 | 18,970,208 | 3.867 |
TalkTalk Telecom | Sir Howard Stringer | 21 Mar 18 | 46,000 | 110 | 50,600 | 56,000 | 0.005 |
Vectura | Bruno Angelici (ch) | 21 Mar 18 | 75,000 | 76.2 | 57,150 | 237,903 | 0.035 |
Vectura | Dr. Per-Olof Andersson | 21 Mar 18 | 50,000 | 70.0 | 34,995 | 50,000 | 0.007 |
XLMedia | Ory Weihs (ce) | 19 Mar 18 | 33,800 | 179.8 | 60,772 | 4,142,929 | 1.880 |
Sells | |||||||
Company | Director | Date | No of shares | Price (p) | Value (£) | Holding (shares) | Holding (%) |
Berkeley Group Holdings | Karl Whiteman | 20 Mar 18 | 14,500 | 3,817.9 | 553,590 | 258,634 | 0.192 |
Close Brothers | Preben Prebensen (ce) | 15 Mar 18 | 102,631 | 1,499.3 | 1,538,757 | 502,915 | 0.332 |
CML Microsystems | Chris Gurry | 16 Mar 18 | 3,875 | 503.1 | 19,495 | 908,816 | 5.408 |
CML Microsystems | Chris Gurry | 16 Mar 18 | 4,876 | 505 | 24,624 | 912,691 | 5.431 |
CVS | Mike McCollum | 20 Mar 18 | 38,677 | 1,020 | 394,505 | 38,678 | 0.055 |
EVRAZ | Alexander Abramov (ch) | 15 Mar 18 | 73,975 | 442.6 | 327,380 | 301,960,323 | 21.272 |
EVRAZ | Alexander Frolov (ce) | 15 Mar 18 | 36,932 | 442.6 | 163,444 | 150,783,385 | 10.622 |
Genus | Karim Bitar (ce) | 16 Mar 18 | 35,803 | 2,330 | 834,210 | 68,213 | 0.111 |
Investec | Glynn Burger (fd) | 20 Mar 18 | 160,933 | 571.1 | 919,088 | 2,926,129 | 0.437 |
Investec | Glynn Burger (fd) | 19 Mar 18 | 160,933 | 571.5 | 919,732 | 3,087,062 | 0.461 |
Mail.ru | Matthew Hammond (cfo) | 16 Mar 18 | 95,044 | 3,573.5 | 3,396,407 | 0 | 0.000 |
Scholium | Philip Blackwell | 16 Mar 18 | 573,000 | 48 | 275,040 | 1,528,042 | 11.236 |
Vitec Group (The) | Martin Green | 15 Mar 18 | 2,400 | 1,245 | 29,880 | 33,003 | 0.073 |
* placing/tender/open offer ♥ spouse/connected party SIPP/ISA |