Digital marketing services specialist XLMedia (XLM) has been struggling in recent times, with its latest half-year results revealing a decline in sales and adjusted cash profits due to regulatory challenges in Sweden, Germany, the UK and Switzerland.
In response, it has been attempting to diversify its revenue streams by doubling the sales contribution of its personal finance division and developing its business in the US. So far, these efforts have not been enough to convince investors of a recovery, with the shares down around 40 per cent over the past 12 months. Will a series of share purchases by co-founder Ory Weihs help restore confidence?
Mr Weihs helped found the group in 2008 and served as its chief executive until last month, remaining as a non-executive director on the board. In September, Mr Weihs bought shares in two chunks amounting to almost £0.5m. Most recently, Mr Weihs boosted his holding via a further four purchases totalling £327,000, increasing his stake to 3.69 per cent of the group’s issued share capital.
| Buys | |||||||
| Company | Director | Date | No of shares | Price (p) | Value (£) | Holding (shares) | Holding (%) |
| Airtel Africa | Douglas Baillie | 28 Oct 19 | 20,000 | 61.15 | 12,230 | 20,000 | 0.001 |
| Applied Graphene Materials | Adrian Potts (ceo) | 30 Oct 19 | 52,420 | 19 | 9,960 | 70,529 | 0.143 |
| Applied Graphene Materials | David Blain (cfo) | 30 Oct 19 | 15,580 | 19 | 2,960 | 33,380 | 0.068 |
| Barclays | Dawn Fitzpatrick | 28 Oct 19 | 435,594 | 170.57 | 742,993 | 909,000 | 0.005 |
| Chaarat Gold | Martin Andersson (ch) | 29 Oct 19 | 100,000 | 38.1 | 38,100 | 146,417,436 | 33.173 |
| Character | David Harris | 29 Oct 19 | 2,094 | 358 | 7,497 | 68,183 | 0.319 |
| CIP Merchant Capital | Carlo Sgarbi | 25 Oct 19 | 200,000 | 56 | 112,000 | 2,330,763 | 3.970 |
| Cora Gold | Paul Quirk | 29 Oct 19 | 142,858 | 7 | 10,000 | 11,854,689 | 9.142 |
| Coro Energy | James Menzies (ceo) | 29 Oct 19 | 399,999 | 2.5 | 10,000 | 7,407,839 | 0.938 |
| Dalata Hotel | Elizabeth McMeikan | 24 Oct 19 | 2,100 | 471.47 | 9,901 | 2,100 | 0.001 |
| Devro | Jackie Callaway (cfo) | 25 Oct 19 | 15,000 | 160.8 | 24,120 | 35,000 | 0.021 |
| EnQuest | Amjad Bseisu (ceo) | 25 Oct 19 | 145,039 | 17.6 | 25,527 | 176,310,860 | 10.398 |
| Flowtech Fluidpower | Bill Wilson | 25 Oct 19 | 10,000 | 113.7 | 11,370 | 50,895 | 0.083 |
| Gaming Realms | Michael Buckley (ch) | 25 Oct 19 | 2,000,000 | 5 | 100,000 | 27,000,000 | 9.493 |
| GlaxoSmithKline | Vivienne Cox | 30 Oct 19 | 308 | 1725 | 5,313 | 4,939 | 0.000 |
| GlaxoSmithKline | Jonathan Symonds (ch) | 30 Oct 19 | 834 | 1725 | 14,387 | 834 | 0.000 |
| GlaxoSmithKline | Vindi Banga | 30 Oct 19 | 417 | 1725 | 7,193 | 59,749 | 0.001 |
| GlaxoSmithKline | Urs Rohner | 30 Oct 19 | 417 | 1725 | 7,193 | 10,171 | 0.000 |
| Grafton♥ | David Arnold (cfo) | 30 Oct 19 | 2,151 | 785.8 | 16,903 | 103,000 | 0.043 |
| M&G | Clive Adamson | 29 Oct 19 | 4,600 | 217.7595 | 10,017 | 4,600 | 0.000 |
| M&G | Clare Bousfield (cfo) | 24 Oct 19 | 14,000 | 224.3998 | 31,416 | 14,233 | 0.001 |
| Minds + Machines | Henry Turcan | 25 Oct 19 | 250,000 | 6 | 15,000 | 115,231,652 | 12.539 |
| Newmark Security | Robert Waddington | 24 Oct 19 | 500,000 | 0.89 | 4,450 | 3,300,000 | 0.704 |
| Oxford BioMedica | Lorenzo Tallarigo (ch) | 28 Oct 19 | 472 | 566 | 2,672 | 52,006 | 0.068 |
| Photo-Me International | Serge Crasnianski (ceo) | 29 Oct 19 | 5,000 | 86 | 4,300 | 84,815,701 | 22.439 |
| Power Metal Resources | Andrew Bell (ch) | 30 Oct 19 | 250,000 | 0.499 | 1,123 | 11,270,000 | 3.023 |
| Power Metal Resources | Paul Johnson (ceo) | 30 Oct 19 | 250,000 | 0.5 | 1,250 | 18,600,000 | 4.989 |
| Reckitt Benckiser♥ | Warren Tucker | 25 Oct 19 | 580 | 5,810 | 33,698 | 3,614 | 0.001 |
| RHI Magnesita NV | Stefan Borgas (ceo) | 30 Oct 19 | 2,700 | 3,452 | 93,204 | 13,125 | 0.027 |
| Sanne♥ | Rupert Robson (ch) | 25 Oct 19 | 4,609 | 542 | 24,981 | 56,798 | 0.039 |
| ScotGems | Angus Tulloch | 29 Oct 19 | 100,000 | 75.5 | 75,500 | 1,110,096 | 2.074 |
| Shearwater | Robin Southwell | 25 Oct 19 | 42,500 | 228.33 | 97,040 | 155,000 | 0.701 |
| Spirent Communications | Paula Bell (cfo) | 24 Oct 19 | 62 | 201.5 | 125 | 365,378 | 0.060 |
| Trident Resources | Adam Davidson | 28 Oct 19 | 65,000 | 16.5 | 10,725 | 65,000 | 0.295 |
| UK Mortgages | Helen Green | 28 Oct 19 | 11,250 | 65.66 | 7,387 | 21,250 | 0.008 |
| UK Mortgages | Christopher Waldron (ch) | 28 Oct 19 | 20,000 | 66 | 13,200 | 60,000 | 0.022 |
| Vast Resources | Andrew Prelea (ceo) | 29 Oct 19 | 4,000,000 | 0.2725 | 10,900 | 43,179,476 | 0.423 |
| Velocity Composites | Andrew Beaden (ch) | 30 Oct 19 | 25,000 | 28.8 | 7,200 | 400,000 | 1.114 |
| VPC Specialty Lending Investments | Richard Levy | 29 Oct 19 | 65,761 | 75.6 | 49,715 | 4,121,128 | 1.307 |
| WH Smith | Simon Emeny | 24 Oct 19 | 2,000 | 2238 | 44,760 | 2,000 | 0.002 |
| XLMedia | Ory Weihs | 30 Oct 19 | 50,000 | 52.5 | 26,250 | 6,912,444 | 3.694 |
| Sells | |||||||
| Company | Director | Date | No of shares | Price (p) | Value (£) | Holding (shares) | Holding (%) |
| Avast | Ulf Claesson | 29 Oct 19 | 190,000 | 417.03 | 792,357 | 2,135,112 | 0.217 |
| Bidstack | Francesco Petruzzelli | 25 Oct 19 | 1,500,000 | 20 | 300,000 | 5,750,000 | 2.364 |
| Bidstack | James Draper (ceo) | 25 Oct 19 | 1,500,000 | 20 | 300,000 | 39,760,562 | 16.350 |
| Bioventix | Ian Nicholson (ch) | 25 Oct 19 | 2,500 | 3,158.67 | 78,967 | 15,500 | 0.301 |
| Cora Gold | Geoffrey McNamara (ch) | 30 Oct 19 | 25,000 | 7 | 1,750 | 1,479,242 | 1.141 |
| Tremor International | Yaniv Carmi (cfo) | 25 Oct 19 | 75,000 | 150 | 112,500 | 402,905 | 0.330 |
| *Placing/tender/open offer ♥Spouse/connected party | |||||||
