BT’s (BT.A) chief financial officer Simon Lowth, and Mary Lowth, have together bought 425,057 shares in the telecoms group at £2.04 each, totalling £0.87m. Mr Lowth has held this role at BT since July 2016, having previously been chief financial officer at BG Group.
Analyst Jerry Dellis at Jefferies notes that Mr Lowth has never bought in December before – adding that he “didn’t have to buy any shares now”. Mr Dellis says that Mr Lowth is meant to take his holding up to 250 per cent of salary, but this target has no deadline – he is currently at 165 per cent.
Mr Lowth’s dealing announcement came after BT revealed on 16 December that it was accelerating its “global transformation” via the sale of its domestic operations in Spain to funds managed by Portobello Capital.
Earlier in December, BT’s shares were marked up on the news of the Conservative Party’s decisive election victory. Little wonder, perhaps; under Labour rule, the group might have seen its “broadband-relevant parts” – including Openreach, which operates the wholesale structure that connects UK homes and businesses – nationalised. Labour revealed in the run-up to the election that it planned to “deliver fast and free full-fibre broadband for all” – a strategy with significant potential implications not only for BT, but arguably for all broadband providers.
| Buys | |||||||
| Company | Director | Date | No of shares | Price (p) | Value (£) | Holding (shares) | Holding (%) |
| Beazley | Christine LaSala | 16 Dec 19 | 5,000 | 555 | 27,750 | 40,000 | 0.008 |
| BlackRock Energy and Resources Income Trust | Adrian Brown | 16 Dec 19 | 14,603 | 68.053 | 9,938 | 14,603 | 0.013 |
| Brunner Investment Trust (The) | Amanda Aldridge | 16 Dec 19 | 4,000 | 894 | 35,760 | 4,000 | 0.009 |
| BT | Simon Lowth (cfo) | 19 Dec 19 | 318,201 | 204 | 649,130 | 582,436 | na |
| BT ♥ | Simon Lowth (cfo) | 19 Dec 19 | 106,856 | 204 | 217,986 | 475,580 | na |
| Corero Network Security * | Jens Montanana (ch) | 13 Dec 19 | 10,000,000 | 3.5 | 350,000 | 164,382,609 | 33.219 |
| Corero Network Security * ♥ | Jens Montanana (ch) | 13 Dec 19 | 22,917,797 | 3.5 | 802,123 | 187,300,406 | 37.850 |
| Corero Network Security * | Richard Last | 13 Dec 19 | 500,000 | 3.5 | 17,500 | 2,500,000 | 0.505 |
| Domino's Pizza | Ian Bull | 16 Dec 19 | 10,000 | 311.69 | 31,169 | 30,000 | 0.006 |
| Fox Marble * | Roy Harrison | 27 Dec 19 | 3,773,585 | 2.65 | 100,000 | 10,088,554 | 3.840 |
| Fox Marble * | Chris Gilbert (ce) | 27 Dec 19 | 1,886,793 | 2.65 | 50,000 | 21,384,456 | 8.170 |
| Great Western Mining | Brian Hall (ch) | 12 Dec 19 | 2,966,684 | 0.133 | 3,946 | 48,000,200 | 4.278 |
| Greencoat Renewables * | Rónán Murphy | 17 Dec 19 | 22,123 | 96.6 | 21,374 | 170,571 | 0.030 |
| Greencoat Renewables * | Emer Gilvarry | 17 Dec 19 | 8,849 | 96.6 | 8,549 | 67,832 | 0.010 |
| Greencoat Renewables * | Kevin McNamara | 17 Dec 19 | 8,849 | 96.6 | 8,549 | 68,327 | 0.010 |
| Gresham House | Gareth Davis | 13 Dec 19 | 11,400 | 611.5 | 69,711 | 16,400 | 0.059 |
| Hunting | Jay Glick (ch) | 17 Dec 19 | 18,373 | 383.89 | 70,532 | 41,373 | 0.020 |
| Journeo * | James Cumming | 13 Dec 19 | 25,000 | 50 | 12,500 | 25,000 | 0.304 |
| Journeo * | Mark Elliott (ch) | 13 Dec 19 | 100,000 | 50 | 50,000 | 100,000 | 1.215 |
| Journeo * | Russell Singleton (ceo) | 13 Dec 19 | 112,250 | 50 | 56,125 | 300,000 | 3.640 |
| JPMorgan American Investment Trust | Simon Bragg | 16 Dec 19 | 10,000 | 467.1 | 46,710 | 86,053 | 0.041 |
| Kape Technologies | Theodore Kim | 16 Dec 19 | 627,597 | 77 | 483,250 | 627,597 | 0.410 |
| Miton Global Opportunities | Michael Phillips | 16 Dec 19 | 10,000 | 276.7 | 27,670 | 117,795 | 0.421 |
| Mortgage Advice Bureau | Lucy Tilley (fd) | 16 Dec 19 | 40 | 734 | 294 | 17,477 | 0.034 |
| Mortgage Advice Bureau | Benjamin Thompson | 16 Dec 19 | 40 | 734 | 294 | 113,086 | 0.219 |
| SEC Newgate SpA | Emma Kane | 13 Dec 19 | 22,727 | 44 | 10,000 | 425,449 | 3.151 |
| Segro | Susan Clayton | 13 Dec 19 | 7,000 | 860.3985 | 60,228 | 7,000 | 0.001 |
| Starcom | Igor Vatenmacher (cfo) | 12 Dec 19 | 250,000 | 1.267 | 3,168 | 250,000 | 0.072 |
| U and I | Richard Upton | 13 Dec 19 | 15,432 | 161.8 | 24,969 | 3,547,011 | 2.828 |
| Vp | Allison Bainbridge (fd) | 12 Dec 19 | 600 | 600 | 3,600 | 68,150 | 0.170 |
| Vp | Neil Stothard | 12 Dec 19 | 600 | 600 | 3,600 | 790,764 | 1.969 |
| Sells | |||||||
| Company | Director | Date | No of shares | Price (p) | Value (£) | Holding (shares) | Holding (%) |
| Onesavings Bank | April Talintyre (cfo) | 13 Dec 19 | 100,000 | 434 | 434,000 | 305,746 | 0.069 |
| Onesavings Bank | Andrew Golding (ceo) | 16 Dec 19 | 250,000 | 438 | 1,095,000 | 645,548 | 0.145 |
| Whitbread | Nicholas Cadbury (fd) | 13 Dec 19 | 6,500 | 4,943 | 321,295 | c. 14,000 | 0.010 |
| Whitbread ♥ | Nicholas Cadbury (fd) | 13 Dec 19 | 6,500 | 4,943 | 321,295 | c. 7,500 | 0.006 |
| * placing/tender/open offer ♥ spouse/connected party | |||||||
