Bioplastics developer gets £2m loan for growth

BIOME Technologies, which is mainly focused on developing plastics made from renewable resources, recently reported a significant jump in sales in the first three months of the year.

Revenues from its bioplastics division almost doubled and strong increases were also seen across the group's other interests, which include radio frequency technologies.

Given the growth it is seeing, the company recently agreed a secured debt facility of up to 2 million to provide access to additional working capital funding.

Paul Law, managing director of the bioplastics division, increased his holding following the trading update. He purchased 3.87 million shares at 0.25p each. He now holds more than 20 million shares in the group.

n Guy Buswell, chief executive of UK Mail, has increased his stake with the purchase of 5,300 shares at 283p each. The move came after the delivery company's final results, which showed that although revenues increased, profits fell as margins came under pressure.

n Charles-Henri Dumon, head of Michael Page's continental Europe and Americas business, has sold 220,000 shares at 543p each.

He still retains a stake of 736,886 shares worth just under 4m.

• Simon Farrell, a non-executive director at mining group Bellzone, has sold 2.23 million shares at around 66p each in the Guinea-focused company. He still holds a stake of 2.7 million shares.

The company said the disposal was to fund the purchase of properties in Australia and the UK.

• Sir Roger Carr, chairman of Scottish Gas owner Centrica, has bought 31,920 shares at 313.3p each and now has 58,361 shares.

The purchase came in the wake of a trading update which said the company expected profits growth to be affected by the government's increased tax levy on UK oil and gas production.

• Nicholas Bull, a non-executive director of corporate broking group Westhouse Holdings, has bought 25,000 shares at 61.5p each to take his stake up to 45,000 shares.

• Geoff Spink, group finance director of instrumentation and technology group Elektron, has sold 175,000 shares at 41.25p each. Spink, who plans to leave the company later this year, is left with 25,000 shares.

• The chairman of venture capital group 3i, Sir Adrian Montague, has bought 20,000 shares at 291.71p a time following results which came in above expectations.

• Dr Christopher Fay, non-executive chairman of insurance broking group Brightside, has bought 50,000 shares at 28.5p each. He now holds 2.23 million shares.