UK Mail CEO bags a bargain after posting dividend growth

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 Buys

UK Mail Group (UKM)
Director name: Mr Guy Buswell
Amount purchased: 18,310 @ 405.00p
Value: £74,156

International Public Partnerships Ltd. (INPP)
Director name: Mr Rupert O Dorey
Amount purchased: 50,000 @ 135.00p
Value: £67,500

Learning Technologies Group (LTG)
Director name: Mr Harry D Hill
Amount purchased: 325,000 @ 18.00p
Value: £58,500

Reed Elsevier (REL)
Director name: Mr Linda Sanford
Amount purchased: 3,100 @ 1,071.40p
Value: £33,213

COLT Group SA (COLT)
Director name: Mr Sergio Giacoletto
Amount purchased: 30,000 @ 135.75p
Value: £40,725

Learning Technologies Group (LTG)
Director name: Mr Harry D Hill
Amount purchased: 180,000 @ 18.00p
Value: £32,400

Top Director Sells

Perform Group (PER)
Director name: Mr Simon Denyer
Amount sold: 3,703,945 @ 260.00p
Value: £9,630,257

Perform Group (PER)
Director name: Mr Oliver Slipper
Amount sold: 2,103,945 @ 260.00p
Value: £5,470,257

WH Smith (SMWH)
Director name: Mr Robert Moorhead
Amount sold: 115,347 @ 1,241.81p
Value: £1,432,391

WH Smith (SMWH)
Director name: Mr Robert Moorhead
Amount sold: 97,715 @ 1,240.55p
Value: £1,212,203

WH Smith (SMWH)
Director name: Mr Stephen Clarke
Amount sold: 97,564 @ 1,241.81p
Value: £1,211,560

Wolseley (WOS)
Director name: Mr John W Martin
Amount sold: 32,539 @ 3,434.44p
Value: £1,117,532

Wolseley (WOS)
Director name: Mr Ian Meakins
Amount sold: 28,592 @ 3,434.44p
Value: £981,975

Wolseley (WOS)
Director name: Mr Frank Roach
Amount sold: 27,340 @ 3,434.44p
Value: £938,976

St Ives (SIV)
Director name: Mr Brad Gray
Amount sold: 463,690 @ 189.50p
Value: £878,693

Wolseley (WOS)
Director name: Mr John W Martin
Amount sold: 12,900 @ 3,434.44p
Value: £443,043