Director dealings: St Modwen scion Clarke places hefty bet

As son of company founder Sir Stanley Clarke, Clarke represents the interests of his and the Leavesley families, the company’s largest shareholders, and as a grandee of the horseracing industry seemingly felt confident enough with the odds on the FTSE 250 company, placing £273,000 on the nose.

Clarke added 100,000 shares at a price of 273p apiece.

This followed the purchase of 10,000 at 230p by senior independent director Richard Mully and 10,000 at 240p by fellow independent Lesley James last week.

On 5 July, the company increased its interim dividend 2% but said it would be likely to take a more cautious approach to strategy after the Brexit decision cast a veil of uncertainty over the UK property market.

St Modwen's net asset value was up 2% on the same period last year at 421p on a shareholders' equity basis, while EPRA NAV was up 1% to 451p.

"Following the referendum held on 23 June 2016, we are now operating in a period of uncertainty in relation to many factors that impact the property market," said chief executive Bill Oliver. "Whilst it is too early to accurately predict how the UK property market will respond, until we have more clarity we believe it is appropriate to take a more cautious approach to the delivery of our development strategy".

Elsewhere, big data company 1Spatial's chief executive Marcus Hanke sold 5m out of his total of nearly 30m shares at a price of 4.45p.

As a result of this transaction, Hanke has 24.3m, representing 3.3% of the total.

Top Director Buys

St. Modwen Properties (SMP)
Director name: Clarke,Simon
Amount purchased: 100,000 @ 273.00p
Value: £273,000.00

Scs Group (SCS)
Director name: Knight,David
Amount purchased: 35,000 @ 135.00p
Value: £47,250.00

Jpmorgan Mid Cap Inv Trust (JMF)
Director name: Evans,John
Amount purchased: 5,000 @ 843.00p
Value: £42,150.00

Advanced Oncotherapy (AVO)
Director name: Bradfield ,Michael
Amount purchased: 30,000 @ 135.00p
Value: £40,500.00

First Derivatives (FDP)
Director name: Gambale,Virginia
Amount purchased: 1,200 @ $21.25
Value: $20,058.22

Real Estate Credit Investments Pcc Ltd (RECI)
Director name: Hallam,John Edward
Amount purchased: 12,500 @ 153.90p
Value: £19,237.50

Mckay Securities (MCKS)
Director name: Shepherd ,Nick
Amount purchased: 8,650 @ 172.00p
Value: £14,878.00

Indigovision Group (IND)
Director name: Lea,Christopher Paul
Amount purchased: 5,000 @ 130.00p
Value: £6,500.00

Aberdeen Japan Investment Trust (AJIT)
Director name: Pakenham,Kevin
Amount purchased: 32 @ 490.00p
Value: £156.80

Martin Currie Asia Unconstrained Trust (MCP)
Director name: Shenfield,Martin
Amount purchased: 52 @ 291.75p
Value: £151.71

Zotefoams (ZTF)
Director name: McGrath ,Gary
Amount purchased: 57 @ 264.50p
Value: £150.76

Zotefoams (ZTF)
Director name: Stirling,David
Amount purchased: 57 @ 264.50p
Value: £150.76

Meggitt (MGGT)
Director name: Green,Philip Ernest
Amount purchased: 31 @ 409.50p
Value: £126.94

Meggitt (MGGT)
Director name: Young,Stephen G
Amount purchased: 30 @ 409.50p
Value: £122.85

Meggitt (MGGT)
Director name: Webb,Doug
Amount purchased: 30 @ 409.50p
Value: £122.85

Unilever (ULVR)
Director name: Pitkethly,Graeme
Amount purchased: 3 @ 3,635.48p
Value: £109.06

Top Director Sells

1spatial (SPA)
Director name: Hanke,Marcus
Amount purchased: 5,000,000 @ 4.45p
Value: £222,500.00