Director dealings: NCC and Paysafe CEOs buy shares as prices fall

As shares in Paysafe and NCC Group took a hammering, directors in both FTSE 250 companies upped their skin in the game.

On Monday, Paysafe's chief financial officer, Brian McArthur-Muscroft, exercised options over 516,844 ordinary shares at 0.01p each that were awarded to him under the company's long-term incentive plan.

He sold 243,778 shares on the open market at 371.85p each, which was said to satisfy tax and national insurance obligations and the option cost of the exercise, and kept the remaining 273,066.

At close on Monday these were worth roughly £1m, just before midday on Tuesday these shares were worth around a third less after traders began reading a blogged note by anonymous short seller Spotlight Research that highlighted what it saw as material risks from potential regulatory action.

The short seller alleged that the Paysafe's largest customer, most likely to be Bet365 and which represents around 50% of its earnings, was operating a business that appears to facilitate and engage in illegal gambling in China.

Paysafe pointed out that not only did Spotlight, which has disclosed a short position, stand to gain from a fall in Paysafe shares, but that all material information in the report “is either factually inaccurate or has been previously disclosed”.

It added that it “has a history of significant, transparent disclosure to the market, publishing two prospectuses in 2015 and being subject to substantial additional scrutiny through a full UKLA listing process as part of its move to the Main Market of the London Stock Exchange”.

By late afternoon on Tuesday, Paysafe's share price had crawled back up to 310p, yanking McArthur-Muscroft's holding back up above £820,000.

Meanwhile, two directors of NCC Group, which was architect of its own share price fall as it issued a profit warning, showed their confidence in the cybersecurity company.

Chief executive Rob Cotton bought 125,000 shares and chairman Paul Mitchell 50,000, both at a price of 191p, to spend a total of £0.33m.

NCC said that for the year to end-May 2017, it now expected adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation would be £45.5-47.5m, down from previous expectations.

Cotton confessed that the gap between expected EBITDA and actual EBITDA in the Assurance division in the first half, "has become too significant to fill in the second half" after three large unrelated contract cancellations in quick succession and another was deferred.

He insisted that while the news was disappointing, the contract cancellations "do not reflect any structural change in our Assurance business".

"The long-term outlook for our Assurance business is unchanged and we remain confident in the future prospects for both of our divisions."

Top Director Buys

Hikma Pharmaceuticals (HIK)
Director name: Darwazah,Mazen
Amount purchased: 50,000 @ 1,707.00p
Value: £853,499.98

Hikma Pharmaceuticals (HIK)
Director name: Darwazah,Said
Amount purchased: 50,000 @ 1,707.00p
Value: £853,499.98

Hikma Pharmaceuticals (HIK)
Director name: Al-Husry,Ali
Amount purchased: 50,000 @ 1,707.00p
Value: £853,499.98

Ncc Group (NCC)
Director name: Cotton,Robert F C
Amount purchased: 125,000 @ 191.00p
Value: £238,750.00

Ncc Group (NCC)
Director name: Mitchell,Paul
Amount purchased: 50,000 @ 191.00p
Value: £95,500.00

Inmarsat (ISAT)
Director name: Bax,Simon
Amount purchased: 4,500 @ 714.77p
Value: £32,164.65

Tricorn Group (TCN)
Director name: Moss,Andrew
Amount purchased: 200,000 @ 12.94p
Value: £25,880.00

Greencore Group (GNC)
Director name: McSharry,Heather Ann
Amount purchased: 5,000 @ 228.50p
Value: £11,425.00

Treatt (TET)
Director name: Hope,Richard Andrew
Amount purchased: 652 @ 276.00p
Value: £1,799.52

Treatt (TET)
Director name: Reeve,Daemmon
Amount purchased: 652 @ 276.00p
Value: £1,799.52

Softcat (SCT)
Director name: Charlton,Graham
Amount purchased: 52 @ 293.05p
Value: £152.39

Zotefoams (ZTF)
Director name: Stirling,David
Amount purchased: 60 @ 250.00p
Value: £150.00

Zotefoams (ZTF)
Director name: McGrath ,Gary
Amount purchased: 60 @ 250.00p
Value: £150.00

Jardine Lloyd Thompson Group (JLT)
Director name: Reynolds,Mike
Amount purchased: 14 @ 975.14p
Value: £136.52

Jardine Lloyd Thompson Group (JLT)
Director name: Burke,Dominic James
Amount purchased: 14 @ 975.14p
Value: £136.52

Meggitt (MGGT)
Director name: Young,Stephen G
Amount purchased: 27 @ 473.90p
Value: £127.95

Meggitt (MGGT)
Director name: Webb,Doug
Amount purchased: 26 @ 473.90p
Value: £123.21

Meggitt (MGGT)
Director name: Green,Philip Ernest
Amount purchased: 26 @ 473.90p
Value: £123.21