Director dealings: Crook adds to Provident holding after shares drop 20pct

Provident Financial chief executive Peter Crook spent £0.57m on shares in the non-standard lender after they lost a fifth of their value in the fallout from the Brexit result.

Crook, former UK managing director at Barclaycard who was appointed to the Provident board in 2006, snapped up 25,000 shares at a price of 2,279.87p apiece on Tuesday.

The FTSE 100 company's shares had been trading at almost 2,920p on Thursday, and had topped 3,600p as recently as December, before they fell below the 2,140p mark at one point on the Monday after the UK's referendum decision to leave the European Union.

In May Provident had confirmed its good start to the year with the profit performance of all businesses in line with or above internal plans for the first quarter, driven by growth in its Vanquis credit card unit.

The group, which provides financial services to people with low credit ratings, said Vanquis Bank delivered year-on-year average receivables growth of 13% in the first quarter and profit growth modestly ahead of that supported by robust margins, operational gearing and lower funding costs.

On Wednesday, JP Morgan's financials team said Provident was its top pick in the specialist lenders sub-sector, though it noted that specialist lenders were at risk of deteriorating macro backdrop.

The company, on which it has an 'overweight' rating, "could come under pressure, their specialized diverse product offering and unique customer characteristics renders the business less susceptible to a potential macro downturn, in our view, and offers a compelling dividend yield of 5%".

Broker Canaccord also added Provident to its select list, saying the "has, as much through luck as judgement, benefited from not building its loan book in the weeks prior to the Brexit referendum, and navigated the 2008-9 financial crisis very effectively".

Top Director Buys

Provident Financial (PFG)
Director name: Crook,Peter
Amount purchased: 25,000 @ 2,279.87p
Value: £569,967.51

Provident Financial (PFG)
Director name: Fisher,Andrew C
Amount purchased: 22,000 @ 2,279.87p
Value: £501,571.41

Provident Financial (PFG)
Director name: Wolstenholme,Manjit
Amount purchased: 6,533 @ 2,279.87p
Value: £148,943.91

Derwent London (DLN)
Director name: Silverman,David
Amount purchased: 4,256 @ 2,349.60p
Value: £99,998.98

Huntsworth (HNT)
Director name: Taaffe,Paul
Amount purchased: 200,000 @ 40.36p
Value: £80,720.00

Papillon Holdings (PPHP)
Director name: Longley,James
Amount purchased: 4,950,000 @ 1.05p
Value: £52,077.96

Marshalls (MSLH)
Director name: Edwards,Mark
Amount purchased: 20,000 @ 225.00p
Value: £45,000.00

Omg (OMG)
Director name: Parry,Roger
Amount purchased: 100,000 @ 42.25p
Value: £42,250.00

Primary Health Properties (PHP)
Director name: Jones,Alun
Amount purchased: 40,000 @ 102.25p
Value: £40,900.00

Halfords Group (HFD)
Director name: Millard,Dennis H
Amount purchased: 10,000 @ 311.78p
Value: £31,178.01

Banco Santander S.a. (BNC)
Director name: Carnegie-Brown,Bruce
Amount purchased: 10,000 @ € 3.43
Value: € 29,982.52

Northgate (NTG)
Director name: Spencer ,Bill
Amount purchased: 8,000 @ 324.87p
Value: £25,989.60

Globalworth Real Estate Investments Limited (GWI)
Director name: Papalekas,Ioannis
Amount purchased: 5,000 @ € 5.10
Value: € 25,500.00

Berkeley Group Holdings (the) (BKG)
Director name: Myers,Andy
Amount purchased: 1,000 @ 2,374.00p
Value: £23,740.00

Berkeley Group Holdings (the) (BKG)
Director name: Wadley,Veronica
Amount purchased: 1,000 @ 2,352.00p
Value: £23,520.00

Mj Gleeson (GLE)
Director name: Allanson ,Stefan
Amount purchased: 5,000 @ 388.80p
Value: £19,440.00

Next Fifteen Communications (NFC)
Director name: Eyre,Richard
Amount purchased: 6,136 @ 242.00p
Value: £14,849.12

Town Centre Securities (TOWN)
Director name: Syers ,Duncan Sinclair
Amount purchased: 3,508 @ 284.00p
Value: £9,962.72

Brown (n.) Group (BWNG)
Director name: Higginson,Andrew
Amount purchased: 1,134 @ 186.00p
Value: £2,109.24

Record (REC)
Director name: Cullen,Steve
Amount purchased: 849 @ 26.50p
Value: £224.98

Personal Group Holdings (PGH)
Director name: Dugdale,Mike
Amount purchased: 32 @ 484.90p
Value: £155.17

Personal Group Holdings (PGH)
Director name: Dugdale,Mike
Amount purchased: 31 @ 484.90p
Value: £150.32

Top Director Sells

Elementis (ELM)
Director name: Taylorson,Brian G
Amount purchased: 83,683 @ 186.06p
Value: £155,700.59

Papillon Holdings (PPHP)
Director name: Longley,James
Amount purchased: 4,950,000 @ 1.05p
Value: £51,975.00