Director dealings: LXB director buying spree continues
LXB Retail Properties director John Irvine has bought £0.54m worth of the property investor's shares to add to his pension fund.
Irvine, a former joint managing director of cheesemaker A McLelland & Son where he launched the “Seriously Strong” cheddar brand, forked out the cash on 940,000 shares in LXB at a price of 57.9p per share.
His Ice Blue Directors pension scheme, of which he is trustee, nwo has 4.7m shares, or 2.8% of the company's total.
Irvine's purchase follows purchases from the fund's manager LXB Partners, including Tim Walton, who bought 1.2m at 54.3p last week; and Jo Duffield who snaffled 0.5m shares at an average price of 63.13p; while LXB Retail directors Danny Kitchen and Steve Webb have also made purchases.
This spate of director buying comes in the wake of shareholders in the closed-ended real estate investment company, which is focused on edge-of-town and out-of-town retail assets, in February voting through a major change in the group's strategy.
LXB Retail, they decided, should no longer invest in new projects and instead is now wholly focused on realising value from the investment portfolio and returning capital as quickly as possible.
On 6 July, the company said discussions were in solicitors' hands over certain properties that, if concluded satisfactorily, would secure a surplus of approximately £4m over the 31 March 2016 balance sheet value.
Interim results in early June showed net asset value down to 102.18p at 31 March from 103.27p at the end of 2015.
Top Director Buys
Lxb Retail Properties (LXB)
Director name: Irvine,John Alastair
Amount purchased: 940,000 @ 57.90p
Value: £544,260.00
Crawshaw Group (CRAW)
Director name: McMeikan,Kennedy
Amount purchased: 180,000 @ 83.00p
Value: £149,400.00
Blackrock Frontiers Investment Trust (BRFI)
Director name: White,Stephen
Amount purchased: 30,000 @ 121.90p
Value: £36,570.00
Elegant Hotels Group (EHG)
Director name: Sherwood,Simon
Amount purchased: 22,639 @ 66.20p
Value: £14,987.02
Vianet Group (VNET)
Director name: Dickson,James
Amount purchased: 5,000 @ 96.00p
Value: £4,800.00
Alternative Networks (AN.)
Director name: Griggs,Gavin
Amount purchased: 55 @ 271.00p
Value: £149.05
Alternative Networks (AN.)
Director name: Quartermaine,Mark
Amount purchased: 55 @ 271.00p
Value: £149.05
Top Director Sells
Pennant International Group (PEN)
Director name: Powell,C C
Amount purchased: 4,000,000 @ 52.00p
Value: £2,079,999.92
Purecircle Limited (di) (PURE)
Director name: Ferre,Jordi
Amount purchased: 41,300 @ 335.00p
Value: £138,355.00