UK Mail CEO bags a bargain after posting dividend growth

19th Nov 2014 15:48

With share in his company down 44% from this year's earlier all-time high of 715p, UK Mail chief executive Guy Buswell has bagged a sackful of shares the day after the company hiked its dividend.Buswell bought 18,310 shares at a price of 405p, shelling out £74,156 in total a day after announcing flat first-half profits after a tough second quarter, but hiked the dividend in anticipation of a busy Christmas period.UK Mail said operating profit before one-off items in the year to 30 September rose £100,000 to £11.4m on flat revenues of £241.4m, while pre-tax profit was also flat at £11.4m, though the board increased the interim dividend by 2.8% to 7.3p per share.UK Mail's parcel division had a good first quarter for revenue but the second quarter was tougher, with volumes below expectations in the latter weeks of the period, which UK Mail blamed on weakness in the retail market.Elsewhere, Perform Group's joint chief executives cashed in options as the takeover by Ukrainian-American financier Len Blavatnik's Access Industries neared closure.With the company set to be taken private on the cancellation of listing on 8 December, joint chief executives Simon Denyer and Oliver Slipper pocketed £9.7m and £5.5m respectively from selling large chunks of their shares to Acess, with a hefty portion coming as part of shares due from their 'performance share plan'.The shares have not performed much this year, and at 260p are well off their 2013 highs near 600p, and exactly the same as their IPO price from 2011.On 14 November and 17 November, Denyer and Slipper each instructed the sale of 3.7m shares and 2.1m shares respectively to Access at the offer price of 260p per share, including 103, 945 shares each resulting from the vesting of share plan awards. Top Director BuysUK Mail Group (UKM) Director name: Mr Guy BuswellAmount purchased: 18,310 @ 405.00p Value: £74,156International Public Partnerships Ltd. (INPP) Director name: Mr Rupert O DoreyAmount purchased: 50,000 @ 135.00p Value: £67,500Learning Technologies Group (LTG) Director name: Mr Harry D HillAmount purchased: 325,000 @ 18.00p Value: £58,500Reed Elsevier (REL) Director name: Mr Linda SanfordAmount purchased: 3,100 @ 1,071.40p Value: £33,213COLT Group SA (COLT) Director name: Mr Sergio GiacolettoAmount purchased: 30,000 @ 135.75p Value: £40,725Learning Technologies Group (LTG) Director name: Mr Harry D HillAmount purchased: 180,000 @ 18.00p Value: £32,400Top Director SellsPerform Group (PER) Director name: Mr Simon DenyerAmount sold: 3,703,945 @ 260.00p Value: £9,630,257Perform Group (PER) Director name: Mr Oliver SlipperAmount sold: 2,103,945 @ 260.00p Value: £5,470,257WH Smith (SMWH) Director name: Mr Robert MoorheadAmount sold: 115,347 @ 1,241.81p Value: £1,432,391WH Smith (SMWH) Director name: Mr Robert MoorheadAmount sold: 97,715 @ 1,240.55p Value: £1,212,203WH Smith (SMWH) Director name: Mr Stephen ClarkeAmount sold: 97,564 @ 1,241.81p Value: £1,211,560Wolseley (WOS) Director name: Mr John W MartinAmount sold: 32,539 @ 3,434.44p Value: £1,117,532Wolseley (WOS) Director name: Mr Ian MeakinsAmount sold: 28,592 @ 3,434.44p Value: £981,975Wolseley (WOS) Director name: Mr Frank RoachAmount sold: 27,340 @ 3,434.44p Value: £938,976St Ives (SIV) Director name: Mr Brad Gray Amount sold: 463,690 @ 189.50p Value: £878,693Wolseley (WOS) Director name: Mr John W MartinAmount sold: 12,900 @ 3,434.44p Value: £443,043