Director dealings: Bond offer brings in £57m for office firm

By PERRY GOURLEY
Published on 07/10/2012 00:00

WORKSPACE, which provides premises for businesses in the London area, 
last week raised more than £57 million in its first retail bond offer.

The company said investor response to the offer, which exceeded its initial target of £50m, would enable the company to diversify its sources of financing.

Earlier, chief executive Jamie Hopkins had demonstrated his own faith in the company’s prospects by buying 112,525 shares at 266p. Shares in the group have already risen by a third over the past year.

• Matthew Turner, finance director at construction services group Eleco, has bought 59,574 shares at a price of 8.28p. It was his first purchase of shares in the group.

• Dennis Melka and Graeme Brown, joint chief 
executives at palm oil 
plantation company Asian Plantations, have increased their stake through a company they jointly own.

Asian Forestry Holdings acquired 2,500 shares at 235p each, and Melka and Brown now own more than 2.1 million shares each.

• James Dickson, chief 
executive of telemetry group Vianet Group, has purchased 260,000 shares at 100p each through his pension fund. He now owns 4.2 million shares, or 15.19 per cent of the company.

• John Sach, chief executive at wallpaper group Walker Greenbank, has 
sold 100,000 shares at 71.5p after strong interim results. He still holds around 1.4 million shares in the interior furnishings group.

• Matt Davies, newly appointed chief executive at Halfords Group, has bought his first stake in the company with 164,056 shares.

Davies, who bought the shares for 302.2p each, 
has replaced former chief executive David Wild.

Last week, the company said the so-called “Wiggins effect” had helped lead a 
return to sales growth for the struggling retailer.

The company revealed a 4.6 per cent increase in retail sales in the 13-week period to 28 September, compared with a 7.5 per cent drop in the first quarter.

The rebound was driven by a 14.7 per cent surge in cycling sales, which the business put down to better weather and the British success in the Tour de France and Olympics 
from the likes of Bradley Wiggins, Sir Chris Hoy and Lizzie Armitstead.