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Petrofac's Asfari returns to duty

To herald an end to his suspension from executive duties, the Petrofac founder and chief executive has shelled out £10m
March 28, 2018

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.

IC TIP: Hold at 530p

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       
CompanyDirectorDateNo of sharesPrice (p)Value (£)Holding (shares)Holding (%)
Ariana Resources ♥Michael de Villiers (ch)15 Mar 182,000,0001.3326,60042,000,0003.963
Arix Bioscience Jonathan Peacock (ch)20 Mar 1890,000225202,500685,0560.508
Capital Drilling David Abery16 Mar 18100,00038.938,860300,0000.222
Capital Drilling David Abery16 Mar 18200,00039.378,500200,0000.148
Centaur Media Neil Johnson (ch)21 Mar 18100,0005050,000100,0000.069
Centaur Media Swag Mukerji (cfo)21 Mar 1840,0004919,60075,8830.053
Cineworld  Alicja Kornasiewicz16 Mar 1825,00024861,99175,0000.005
Cineworld  Alicja Kornasiewicz15 Mar 1850,000248.6124,29550,0000.004
Essentra Mary Reilly21 Mar 187,500452.933,9687,5000.003
Essentra Paul Forman (ce)16 Mar 1820,00046192,200140,0000.053
Essentra Ralf Wunderlich21 Mar 1838,700452174,92491,0000.035
Euromoney Institutional Investor Tristan Hillgarth15 Mar 184,0001,27050,8004,0000.004
Hutchison China Meditech ♥Graeme Jack16 Mar 181,5004,859.472,8901,5000.002
Impellam  Lord Ashcroft (ch)19 Mar 181,136,8085556,309,2843,360,5636.682
Jackpotjoy Neil Goulden (ch)21 Mar 1825,000820205,00065,0000.088
Jackpotjoy Simon Wykes21 Mar 185,03182041,2545,0310.007
Menzies (John) Philipp Joeinig21 Mar 1830,000649194,70050,0000.060
Micro Focus International Chris Kennedy (cfo)21 Mar 1810,00092892,80010,0000.002
Micro Focus International Darren Roos21 Mar 184,9261,009.649,7318,0270.002
Micro Focus International Kevin Loosemore (ch)21 Mar 1820,1561,006.1202,779748,0450.172
Micro Focus International Karen Slatford21 Mar 189,9151,00199,2499,9150.002
Micro Focus International Stephen Murdoch (ce)21 Mar 185,39092049,5885,3900.001
Micro Focus International ♥Richard Atkins21 Mar 1810,350973.2100,72816,7360.004
Netcall Michael Jackson (ch)15 Mar 18100,0004545,000800,0000.560
Nexus Infrastructure Geoffrey French (ch)21 Mar 185,00026513,25010,0000.026
Petrofac Ayman Asfari (ce)21 Mar 182,023,800494.19,999,85964,982,22618.79
Renewi Colin Matthews (ch)21 Mar 1850,0008040,000250,0000.031
Shire Thomas Dittrich (cfo)15 Mar 189,4003,228.7303,5009,4000.001
St James's Place Iain Cornish20 Mar 186,5001,13673,8406,5000.001
Stratex International Tim Livesey (ce)19 Mar 181,890,1410.7413,9871,890,1410.404
Symphony International Holdings Anil Thadani16 Mar 1852,95183.944,40165,955,09013.445
Symphony International Holdings Sunil Chandiramani16 Mar 1839,71383.933,30118,970,2083.867
TalkTalk Telecom  Sir Howard Stringer21 Mar 1846,00011050,60056,0000.005
Vectura  Bruno Angelici (ch)21 Mar 1875,00076.257,150237,9030.035
Vectura  Dr. Per-Olof Andersson21 Mar 1850,00070.034,99550,0000.007
XLMedia Ory Weihs (ce)19 Mar 1833,800179.860,7724,142,9291.880
Sells       
CompanyDirectorDateNo of sharesPrice (p)Value (£)Holding (shares)Holding (%)
Berkeley Group HoldingsKarl Whiteman20 Mar 1814,5003,817.9553,590258,6340.192
Close Brothers  Preben Prebensen (ce)15 Mar 18102,6311,499.31,538,757502,9150.332
CML Microsystems Chris Gurry16 Mar 183,875503.119,495908,8165.408
CML Microsystems Chris Gurry16 Mar 184,87650524,624912,6915.431
CVS  Mike McCollum20 Mar 1838,6771,020394,50538,6780.055
EVRAZ Alexander Abramov (ch)15 Mar 1873,975442.6327,380301,960,32321.272
EVRAZ Alexander Frolov (ce)15 Mar 1836,932442.6163,444150,783,38510.622
Genus Karim Bitar (ce)16 Mar 1835,8032,330834,21068,2130.111
Investec Glynn Burger (fd)20 Mar 18160,933571.1919,0882,926,1290.437
Investec Glynn Burger (fd)19 Mar 18160,933571.5919,7323,087,0620.461
Mail.ru  Matthew Hammond (cfo)16 Mar 1895,0443,573.53,396,40700.000
Scholium  Philip Blackwell16 Mar 18573,00048275,0401,528,04211.236
Vitec Group (The) Martin Green15 Mar 182,4001,24529,88033,0030.073
* placing/tender/open offer ♥ spouse/connected party SIPP/ISA