The past week has seen a number of notable deals with directors taking the chance to sell some of their holdings while share prices are up.
The biggest deal of all involves Will Adderley, the deputy chairman and biggest shareholder in home furnishings retailer Dunelm (DNLM), who sold 15 million shares in the business - a 7.4% stake - at a price of £12.80 per share, netting him a total of £192 million.
The shares were sold to institutional investors and Dunelm said the sale was aimed at ‘achieving greater portfolio diversification on the part of Will Adderley’, but insisted Adderley remains ‘fully committed’ to the company in his role as deputy chairman.
The homewares retailer pointed out he remains a ‘very substantial’ shareholder in the firm with a 17.8% personal holding, while his combined holdings and those of persons closely associated with him stand at 37.8% of the company’s shares. The aggregate holdings of the Adderley Family in total stand at 43.2%.
INVESTORS NOT REASSURED
Dunelm’s words failed to reassure investors however as the stock sold off 9% to £12.80 on the news and is now changing hands slightly lower at around £12.59.
The deal has taken away a bit of recent momentum in the company’s share price, which has rebounded significantly since the market selloff last March and had ticked higher after its interim results for the 26 weeks to 26 December which it released last week.
The firm reported that group revenues grew 26% year-on-year to £719 million, reflecting its ‘multichannel approach’, while gross margins grew 50 basis points to 52% and pre-tax profit increased 34% year-on-year to £112 million.
OTHER NOTABLE DEALS
Other sizeable deals include a £7.5 million sale from Ideagen (IDEA:AIM) executive chairman David Hornsby, who sold 2.58 million shares in the firm at a price of 288.8p each. He also transferred 1.53 million shares for nil consideration to his wife.
Hornsby is set to retire from the group in May, alongside the announcement of its trading update for the year to 30 April. Ideagen said he will be succeeded, in a non-executive capacity, by its senior independent director Richard Longdon.
Barry Olliff, founder of asset manager City of London Investment Group (CLIG) has sold £3 million worth of shares at an average price of £5.04 each. He retains a 2.5% stake in the firm.
For a full list of the week’s most significant trades, click here.
