Director Dealings: Parkmead popular

Published on Saturday 27 June 2009 13:54

ALTHOUGH headquartered in London, investment banking group Parkmead has a significant Scottish influence with a board including Dana Petroleum boss Tom Cross and former Labour minister Brian Wilson.

The group, which specialises in investing in oil and gas projects across the world, is one of the AIM market's smallest stocks and recent director buying has had a dramatic effect on its price.

Since the company announced last week that non- executive Cross, chairman Colin Goodall and chief executive Niall Doran had bought 22 million shares between them, Parkmead's market value has almost doubled.

Cross's 100,000 purchase of shares at 1p increased his holding from 4 million to 14 million shares, Goodall's increased from 2 million to 12 million and Doran's from 33 million to 35 million. The company has two investments in listed companies, Faroe Petroleum and Reservoir Exploration Technology and a stake in Transeuro Energy.

Last month Parkmead reported an operating loss of 1.11m in the six months to December, up from 1m in 2007.

&#149 Steve Hannam, chairman of Scottish sausage skin manufacturer Devro, has more than doubled his stake. He bought 46,685 shares at 93.5p each and now holds 82,615.

&#149 Ryanair chairman David Bonderman has sold 300,000 shares at ?3.35 each although he still retains a sizeable stake in the budget airline.

&#149 Tom Grace, a non-executive director of Irish bookmaking group Paddy Power, has sold part of his stake. He disposed of 16,500 shares at ?10 each.

&#149 Neil Chapman, a non-executive director at industrial components group Trifast, has bought 100,000 shares at 21.5p each to take his holding up to 320,000 shares.

&#149 Ralph Kugler, newly appointed chairman of biotech company Byotrol, has taken his first stake in the company following the a confident trading update. The former Unilever executive bought 384,000 shares at 13p.