In a busy couple of weeks for directors’ dealings, the standout player has been the billionaire Russian owner of troubled travel operator TUI (TUI), Alexey Mordashov, who splashed the cash on buying yet more stock.

Chairman and main shareholder of Russian conglomerate Severstal, Mordashov’s net worth is estimated by US magazine Forbes at over $30 billion, making him the 51st wealthiest person in the world.

Even so, his decision to buy just under another 20 million TUI shares across the London and Frankfurt exchanges at a cost of £72.5 million was noteworthy as it takes his holding to 361 million shares or just under 33% of the holiday group.

In spite of a recovery in bookings for 2021 and 2022 and initial enthusiasm for tourism stocks due to the restart of international travel, investors remain leery of TUI after it posted heavy losses for the six months to March.

That said, there is a view that having been bailed out by the German government three times during the pandemic and received almost €5 billion in state support the firm is almost ‘too big to fail’.

CASHBACK FOR STEINER SR

Another noteworthy deal was the sale of 2 million shares of Ocado (OCDO), the high-flying online grocery delivery firm, by its chief executive Tim Steiner just days before its latest trading update.

While the timing may have been fortunate, given the negative market reaction to the release, there was nothing to fear from the sale of the shares, which netted nearly £39 million.

According to the filing, under an ongoing agreement signed in 2010 Mr Steiner transferred the shares to his father ‘in consideration of £100 and 97% of the market value of the shares on completion’. This was the second of seven transfers each for 2 million shares.

Other notable deals include the sale of 17 million shares of building materials firm Brickability (BRCK) by chief executive Alan Simpson for just over £16 million, and the sale of £3.1 million worth of shares in plant hire firm Ashtead (AHT) by director Brendan Horgan to fund the tax payable on the vesting of his 2018 share award ‘and other tax planning purposes’.

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Issue Date: 08 Jul 2021