Director Dealings: Stakes raised at media and gambling group

Published on Saturday 23 January 2010 13:17

DIRECTORS at Media Corporation, the online advertising, publishing and gaming group, believe a turnaround is under way at the Aim-listed company.

Although it will report losses for its latest financial year, the first quarter of the new year has seen the company move into profit.

Strong performances from its poker and casino brand Purple Lounge and advertising business Eyeconomy has given the board confidence that the group will "continue to experience strong profitability and growth for the year".

Shares in the group have more than tripled since the summer, but two directors, including serial Scottish entrepreneur Chris Gorman, last week increased their holdings in a further vote of confidence.

Gorman, a non-executive director, almost doubled his stake with the purchase of 263,147 shares at 3.5p. Chief executive Justin Drummond added 200,000 shares at a similar price to take his holding up to 22.5 million.

&#149 Gerry Brown, a non-executive director of Forth Ports, has significantly increased his stake.

He bought 5,000 shares at 1,110p each to take his holding up to 7,064 shares.

&#149 Paul Venables, a non-executive director at logistics group Wincanton, has bought his first stake in the company since joining the board last year. He purchased 25,000 shares at 224p each.

&#149 Stagecoach chief executive Brian Souter has sold 217,085 shares he purchased under a share option scheme.

Souter exercised the options at 111.5p each and sold the shares at an average price of 175p.

He still retains a stake of more than 108 million shares in the Perth-based transport group.

&#149 Paul Harbottle, chief operating officer at pubs group JD Wetherspoon, has sold 9,491 shares at 462.3p each to reduce his stake to 25,000 shares.

&#149 Two non-executive directors at semiconductor group Imagination Technologies have sold shares.

Ian Pearson sold 4,600 shares at 250p and now holds 35,122 shares and David Hurst-Brown sold 30,000 shares at the same price to leave him with 70,000 shares.

&#149 Three board members at Aberdeen Asset Management have sold shares awarded under an incentive scheme. Chief executive Martin Gilbert, finance director Bill Rattray and deputy chief executive Andrew Laing together sold just over 500,000 worth of shares at 132p.