Soco International director buys shares after recent sell-off

A director at Soco International showed confidence in the business by purchasing new shares following a recent slump in the stock which sent it to a new 52-week low.

Ettore Contini, non-executive director in the group since 2001, bought 377,609 shares for an individual price of 142.56p, spending a total of £538,319 in the purchase.

The shares were bought by Liquid Business Limited, a connected party to Contini, who now holds 29m shares, which represent 8.74% of the issued share capital of the company.

The oil stock, which was trading at a recent high of around 450p mark last May, has fallen sharply over recent months on the back of a continued slide in the price of crude.

However, selling intensified last week as Soco warned that it had reclassified a large portion of its reserves due to the oil price slump. The stock closed Tuesday's session at 140p.

Soco reclassified 38.9m barrels of oil equivalent reserves as '2C' contingent resources, a 'best estimate' classification, plus a 45.4m barrel revision, which together saw its proven plus probable resources (2P) shrink by two thirds to 40.8m barrels.

However, president and chief executive Ed Story said at the time of the results that 2014 was "a strong year" for Soco which saw a cash return to shareholders of $119m and a cash dividend of 10p per share.

Top Director Buys

Soco International (SIA)
Director name: Mr Ettore Contini
Amount purchased: 377,609 @ 142.56p
Value: £538,319

Ubisense Group (UBI)
Director name: Mr Robert Sansom
Amount purchased: 270,000 @ 91.50p
Value: £247,050

KEFI Minerals (KEFI)
Director name: Mr Harry Anagnastoras-Adams
Amount purchased: 23,000,000 @ 1.00p
Value: £230,000

Xchanging (XCH)
Director name: Mr Geoff Unwin
Amount purchased: 76,000 @ 128.00p
Value: £97,280

Marks & Spencer Group (MKS)
Director name: Mr Andrew Nigel (Andy) Halford
Amount purchased: 18,000 @ 513.00p
Value: £92,340

Deltex Medical Group (DEMG)
Director name: Mr Tim (Timothy) Irish
Amount purchased: 1,000,000 @ 6.47p
Value: £64,800

Revolution Bars Group (RBG)
Director name: Mr Keith Edelman
Amount purchased: 30,500 @ 195.00p
Value: £59,475

Intu Properties (INTU)
Director name: Ms Adèle Anderson
Amount purchased: 14,380 @ 347.70p
Value: £49,999

Ubisense Group (UBI)
Director name: Mr Richard Green
Amount purchased: 54,000 @ 91.50p
Value: £49,410

Porta Communications (PTCM)
Director name: Mr David E Wright
Amount purchased: 471,000 @ 7.00p
Value: £32,970

Top Director Sells

GKN (GKN)
Director name: Mr Nigel Stein
Amount sold: 465,189 @ 370.00p
Value: £1,721,199

InterQuest Group (ITQ)
Director name: Mr Michael Joyce
Amount sold: 313,333 @ 91.00p
Value: £285,133

InterQuest Group (ITQ)
Director name: Mr Mark Braund
Amount sold: 95,000 @ 91.00p
Value: £86,450

InterQuest Group (ITQ)
Director name: Mr Mark Braund
Amount sold: 95,000 @ 91.00p
Value: £86,450