Murdoch's senior advisor ditches bucket load of shares

2nd Mar 2012 16:08

Arthur Siskind, senior advisor to News Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch, has ditched 120,000 shares in the firm. Siskind sold the shares at $20.26 each for a total of $2,431,200 on February 29th. The transaction came just one day before James Murdoch, son of media mogul Rupert Murdoch, quit his role as Executive Chairman of News International, which sparked concerns that he will succeed his father as Chief Executive Officer of News Corp, the parent company of News International. The trustees of banking giant HSBC released and subsequently sold 477,174 ordinary shares in the name of its CEO Stuart Gulliver. That followed the partial vesting of the restricted shares awarded to him in 2010 under the HSBC share plan. Gulliver, who earned £5.9m in bonuses on top of his £1.25m salary, disposed of the shares on February 27th at 555.20p each, leaving him with just over 4.44m shares.The deal came one day after the bank reported strong profits growth in 2011 despite profits at its investment banking arm taking a dive.Reported profit before tax, at $21,872m, was ahead of expectations and up from $19,037m the year before. It was, however, boosted by favourable fair value movements of HSBC's own debt to the tune of $3.9bn. Retail Banking and Wealth Management contributed $4,270m to profits in 2011, up from 3,839m the year before. The Commercial Banking arm's profits rose to a record $7,947m from $6,090m. Earnings per share were up 26% on 2010 at 92 cents, ahead of broker Charles Stanley's forecast of 87 cents. Gulliver hailed it as "a year of major progress". Top Director BuysBerendsen (BRSN) Director name: Mr Iain FergusonAmount purchased: 35,000 @ 518.00p Value: £181,300Bank of America Corp. (BAC) Director name: Mr Donald E. PowellAmount purchased: 10,000 @ $8.10 Value: $81,000JPMorgan Emerging Markets Inv Trust (JMG) Director name: Mr Percy MistryAmount purchased: 5,000 @ 460.00p Value: £23,000Artemis VCT (AAM) Director name: Mrs Fiona E WollocombeAmount purchased: 20,733 @ 50.00p Value: £10,366Rotork (ROR) Director name: Mr Roger LockwoodAmount purchased: 500 @ 2,062.00p Value: £10,310Top Director SellsNews Corp. 'A' Shares (NCRA) Director name: Mr Arthur SiskindAmount sold: 120,000 @ $20.26 Value: $2,431,200Whitbread (WTB) Director name: Mr Christopher C B RogersAmount sold: 36,354 @ 1,686.51p Value: £613,114Whitbread (WTB) Director name: Mr Patrick DempseyAmount sold: 26,353 @ 1,686.51p Value: £444,446ITV (ITV) Director name: Mr Ian GriffithsAmount sold: 262,067 @ 88.31p Value: £231,431Rotork (ROR) Director name: Mr Peter FranceAmount sold: 10,513 @ 2,065.00p Value: £217,093Travis Perkins (TPK) Director name: Mr Joseph Mescall Amount sold: 13,689 @ 1,081.65p Value: £148,067Rotork (ROR) Director name: Dr Graham OgdenAmount sold: 6,917 @ 2,065.00p Value: £142,836Rolls-Royce Holdings (RR.) Director name: Mr Mike TerrettAmount sold: 16,344 @ 816.00p Value: £133,367Tower Resources (TRP) Director name: Mr Peter KingstonAmount sold: 3,600,000 @ 2.65p Value: £95,400Rotork (ROR) Director name: Mr Stephen R. JonesAmount sold: 3,330 @ 2,065.00p Value: £68,764