Heavyweight big guns hang on to the cash Christopher Webb September 11, 2010
DIRECTORS of heavyweight companies kept their money in their pockets over the past week but a clutch of big company folk continued to raise cash.
The scorecard was $8.4 million to $3 million in favour of sellers.
Disposals turnover was helped by two directors of M2 Telecommunications, who collected a total of $2 million.
M2 continues on its merry way and is fetching record levels of $2.18 a share following strong earnings growth in the June year.
The company supplies fixed-line voice, mobile telecommunications and broadband data services, and along the way has picked up assets such as the telecoms busi- ness assets of Commander Communications.
Tax-paid earnings in the June year improved from $7.4 million to $16.2 million, and the group expects its performance to remain strong this year.
Strong though its results are likely to be, managing director Vaughan Bowen let 750,000 shares go at $2.07 while chairman Craig Farrow sold 200,000 at $2.10.
For those who don't like director selling, it should be noted that Mr Bowen sold 2.5 million shares this time last year at $1.03 a share.
Those buyers, if they held on, have more than doubled their money, while subscribers to an oversubscribed $20 million placement at $1.80 a share handled by Tony Davis of StoneBridge Group in May have also fared OK.
Elsewhere, Terry Smart, the newish chief at JB Hi-Fi, has done some very profitable selling. The numbers man exercised 35,000 options at $4.81 and sold the resulting shares at $20.93. Sure beats flogging TV sets.
Gloucester Coal managing director Barry Tudor topped the buyers list with a nice bit of switching. He tendered 50,000 shares into the $12.60 takeover offer by the Noble Group, which would raise $630,000. He bought $644,000 of Gloucester stock - ex the offer - at $9.20 apiece.
Two directors of Decmil, a civil engineering and construction group for the resources industry, made some quick handy gains.
Messrs Healy and Verios paid about $1.70 a share following the group's results and now, lo and behold, the shares are fetching $2.10.
The company copped a stock exchange query about the price going from $1.90 to $2.16.
The group noted yesterday that the market was perhaps responding to the company's earnings report, which showed earnings improved from $12.2 million to $18.8 million.
