Debenhams CFO backs company's success

Debenhams’ chief financial officer is backing the company after a solid set of Christmas results.

On Friday, Matt Smith purchased 25,000 for just over £19,000, taking the total number of shares he has an interest in to 53,000, a 0.004% stake.

It followed solid Christmas trading which beat analysts’ expectations announced earlier in the week.

For the 19 weeks to 9 January, like-for-like sales were up 1.9%, comfortably beating expectations for a 0.1% drop and better than last year’s 0.8% decline.

Group transaction value rose by 2.5% and online sales were up 12.1%.

Debenhams said the growth in Online reflects increasing customer confidence in its service as well as later cut-off times and more competitive premium delivery charges.

Top Director Buys

Adamas Finance Asia Limited (DI) (ADAM)
Director name: Mr Conor MacNamara
Amount purchased: 195,000 @ $0.91
Value: $177,470

Big Yellow Group (BYG)
Director name: Mr Richard Cotton
Amount purchased: 5,000 @ 751.00p
Value: £37,550

Braveheart Investment Group (BRH)
Director name: Mr Trevor Brown
Amount purchased: 265,701 @ 7.50p
Value: £19,928

Debenhams (DEB)
Director name: Mr Matt Smith
Amount purchased: 25,000 @ 77.28p
Value: £19,320

Titon Holdings (TON)
Director name: Mr Nicholas C Howlett
Amount purchased: 35,000 @ 48.00p
Value: £16,800

M&C Saatchi (SAA)
Director name: Mr Lloyd M Dorfman
Amount purchased: 4,850 @ 310.00p
Value: £15,035

Top Director Sells

Braveheart Investment Group (BRH)
Director name: Mr Andrew Burton
Amount sold: 265,701 @ 7.50p
Value: £19,928

Henry Boot (BHY)
Director name: Mr John T Sutcliffe
Amount sold: 5,000 @ 215.25p
Value: £10,762