Jorge Cosmen raises National Express stake
Nov 20, 2009
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Shares in National Express raced ahead after deputy chairman Jorge Cosmen increased his family's influence over the company, spending more than £1.7m on shares in the train and bus operator.
He bought just over 500,000 shares at 341p a time and now has about 29m, which is just shy of 20% of the company.
The Cosmen family, a Spanish dynasty specialising in transport, recently teamed up with private equity group CVC to launch a bid for National Express but then withdrew their interest after negotiations.
National Express later rejected a merger offer from its rival Stagecoach, instead opting to raise funds from shareholders through a rights issue.
The rejection of the Stagecoach offer prompted criticism from the Cosmen family, which said it was 'concerned that there has not been a sufficiently full and thorough assessment of all the available options to address the company's short and longer-term challenges.'
Among the challenges National Express has faced are the loss of the East Coast rail franchise, which it walked away from after seeing revenues fall. The firm now has just two rail franchises, the c2c service between London and south Essex and the East Anglia line that runs between London and Norwich.
Top Director Buys
National Express Group (NEX)
Director name: Mr Jorge Cosmen
Amount purchased: 501,823 @ 341.00p
Value: £1,711,216
Cable & Wireless (CW.)
Director name: Mr Timothy Pennington
Amount purchased: 336,986 @ 139.46p
Value: £469,961
Cable & Wireless (CW.)
Director name: Mr John Pluthero
Amount purchased: 150,000 @ 138.91p
Value: £208,365
Healthcare Locums (HLO)
Director name: Ms Kate Bleasdale
Amount purchased: 50,000 @ 252.00p
Value: £126,000
Mecom Group (MEC)
Director name: Mr David Montgomery
Amount purchased: 20,000 @ 145.00p
Value: £29,000
Byotrol (BYOT)
Director name: Mr Iain Duncan Smith
Amount purchased: 65,000 @ 31.00p
Value: £20,150
Byotrol (BYOT)
Director name: Dr. Till Medinger
Amount purchased: 65,000 @ 31.00p
Value: £20,150
Top Director Sells
Bankers Petroleum Ltd (BNK)
Director name: Mr Robert M D Cross
Amount sold: 1,000,000 @ 284.62p
Value: £2,846,200
Unite Group (UTG)
Director name: Mr Mark Allen
Amount sold: 54,733 @ 280.30p
Value: £153,417
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