Wetherspoon chairman buys another round
JD Wetherspoon chairman Tim Martin bought almost £1m worth of shares in the pub chain again yesterday, having taken similar stakes in the company the previous day and on Monday.
The latest purchase, which comprised 325,000 shares at 300.766p each, brought his total stake in the company to 23.46%.
Martin's continued purchasing finally seems to be having an effect on the share price which rose sharply today. He bought 315,000 shares on Wednesday and 297,127 on Monday, but neither of those purchases stopped the shares from continuing the freefall which has seen them halve over the last year.
In total this week Martin has spent £2.95m buying 937,127 shares at an average price of 315p. Martin now has 33,209,934 shares in the company.
Pub and restaurant shares have had a torrid time of late, with the squeeze on consumer spending taking its toll. Pubs have also been grappling with the effects of the introduction of the smoking ban. Many of them, like Wetherspoon, were looking for increased food sales to offset a decline in "wet" sales caused by the smoking ban, but recent increases in raw material prices in the catering business have made pub meals more expensive and deterred people from eating out.
Top Director Buys
JD Wetherspoon (JDW)
Director name: Mr Timothy Martin
Amount purchased: 325,000 @ 300.77p
Value: £977,502
Dolphin Capital Investors (DCI)
Director name: Mr Miltos Kambourides
Amount purchased: 100,000 @ 136.00p
Value: £136,000
Norseman Gold (NGL)
Director name: Mr David Steinepreis
Amount purchased: 1,000,000 @ 10.75p
Value: £107,500
Marston's (MARS)
Director name: Mr David G F Thompson
Amount purchased: 20,000 @ 281.75p
Value: £56,350
Stagecoach Group (SGC)
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Director name: Mr Garry Watts
Amount purchased: 20,000 @ 232.86p
Value: £46,572
Addax Petroleum (AXC)
Director name: Mr Stephen Paul de Heinrich
Amount purchased: 1,831 @ 2,121.00p
Value: £38,836
Addax Petroleum (AXC)
Director name: Mr James Davie
Amount purchased: 1,413 @ 2,121.00p
Value: £29,970
Norseman Gold (NGL)
Director name: Mr David Steinepreis
Amount purchased: 250,000 @ 9.50p
Value: £23,750
Croma Group (CMG)
Director name: Mr Andrew Nicholas Hewson
Amount purchased: 500,000 @ 4.00p
Value: £20,000
Celoxica Holdings (CXA)
Director name: Mr David Cheesman
Amount purchased: 360,000 @ 5.50p
Value: £19,800
