Director dealings: Big sale at Auto Trader, modest incentive for 32Red COO

The bid director deals of the day were undoubtedly the huge profits taken by Auto Trader's main executive management team a year after the company was spun out by the Guardian Media and Apax Partners.

The sale of 8.7m shares by chief executive Trevor Mather and finance director Sean Glithero was part of a wider sale of 16.2m shares by a group that also included management and ex-directors at the end of a year's lock-up agreement following the flotation last year.

In February, Apax disposed of the majority of its holdings, which led to the resignation of its appointed directors Tom Hall and Nick Hartman.

Their departures were accompanied by Victor "Chip" Perry III, former CEO of AutoTrader.com in the US, due to his other executive commitments.

The largest director purchase on Wednesday was by Matthew Booth, chief commercial officer at online gaming group 32Red, who acquired 41,958 ordinary shares in the company at a price of 143p per share.

However, he was on the same day granted a share option over 41,958 ordinary shares at an exercise price of 0.02p per ordinary share, which will vest on 5 April 2019 provided he is still in employment with the company and still has the 41,958 shares he bought this week.

This engineered buying comes not long after the sale by the company's operations director of 296,125 shares at a price of £1.50 per share midway through March 2016.

Shares in the company, which joined AIM in 2005, last month hit an all-time high just above 181p.

Top Director Buys

32red (TTR)
Director name: Booth ,Matthew
Amount purchased: 41,958 @ 143.00p
Value: £59,999.94

Wireless Group (WLG)
Director name: Huntingford,Richard N L
Amount purchased: 32,143 @ 185.00p
Value: £59,464.55

Dairy Farm International Holdings Ltd. (singapore) (DFI)
Director name: Allan,Graham
Amount purchased: 8,900 @ $5.85
Value: $52,065.00

Beazley (BEZ)
Director name: Crawford-Ingle,Angela
Amount purchased: 8,200 @ 351.90p
Value: £28,855.80

Micro Focus International (MCRO)
Director name: Phillips,Michael Scott
Amount purchased: 1,125 @ 1,559.82p
Value: £17,548.02

Micro Focus International (MCRO)
Director name: Phillips,Michael Scott
Amount purchased: 1,069 @ 1,565.65p
Value: £16,736.81

Wireless Group (WLG)
Director name: Kirkpatrick,Stephen
Amount purchased: 8,815 @ 185.00p
Value: £16,307.75

Bunzl (BNZL)
Director name: Larmon,Patrick
Amount purchased: 569 @ $24.92
Value: $10,298.13

Hammerson (HMSO)
Director name: Cole,Peter W B
Amount purchased: 312 @ 577.50p
Value: £1,801.80

Hammerson (HMSO)
Director name: Atkins,David
Amount purchased: 312 @ 577.50p
Value: £1,801.80

Law Debenture Corp. (LWDB)
Director name: Banszky,Caroline
Amount purchased: 393 @ 457.75p
Value: £1,798.96

Baillie Gifford Shin Nippon (BGS)
Director name: Donaldson,Michael Neil
Amount purchased: 304 @ 491.00p
Value: £1,492.64

Top Director Sells

Auto Trader Group (AUTO)
Director name: Mather,Trevor
Amount purchased: 7,134,581 @ 370.00p
Value: £26,397,950.04

Auto Trader Group (AUTO)
Director name: Glithero,Sean
Amount purchased: 1,600,000 @ 370.00p
Value: £5,920,000.08

Beazley (BEZ)
Director name: Washbourn,Clive
Amount purchased: 500,000 @ 350.50p
Value: £1,752,500.06

Bunzl (BNZL)
Director name: Roney,Michael J
Amount purchased: 31,643 @ 2,010.00p
Value: £636,024.31

Bunzl (BNZL)
Director name: Larmon,Patrick
Amount purchased: 18,903 @ 2,010.00p
Value: £379,950.31

Bunzl (BNZL)
Director name: May,Brian
Amount purchased: 16,438 @ 2,018.00p
Value: £331,718.85

Bunzl (BNZL)
Director name: van Zanten,Frank
Amount purchased: 12,328 @ 2,010.00p
Value: £247,792.80

Bunzl (BNZL)
Director name: Hussey,Paul Nicholas
Amount purchased: 8,629 @ 2,018.00p
Value: £174,133.22

Galliford Try (GFRD)
Director name: Fitzgerald,Greg
Amount purchased: 1,750 @ 1,386.00p
Value: £24,255.00

Galliford Try (GFRD)
Director name: Fitzgerald,Greg
Amount purchased: 1,750 @ 1,386.00p
Value: £24,255.00

Micro Focus International (MCRO)
Director name: Phillips,Michael Scott
Amount purchased: 1,540 @ 1,556.00p
Value: £23,962.40