Director dealings

WATER filtration specialist Amiad believes it has reached a turning point following a period when investment in projects by customers was hit by the economic downturn.

The AIM-quoted company, which produces and supplies water filters and filtration systems for industrial and irrigation markets, has recently completed the acquisition of rival Arkal, which has significantly increased product range and global reach.

Last month the company also announced plans to buy out the partners in its subsidiary in China, which Amiad has identified as one of its key growth markets.

Non-executive director Simon Olswang appears to believe in the strength of future prospects for the company, last week purchasing shares for the second time this month. He bought 5,000 shares at 210p each and now holds 30,000.

• Jonson Cox, newly appointed chairman of UK Coal, has bought his first stake in the company with the purchase of 100,000 shares at 37.6p.

• Mike Turner, chairman of engineering group Babcock, has bought 10,000 shares at 572p each to increase his holding to 30,000 shares.

• Two directors at Dundee-based diagnostics company Axis-Shield have upped their holdings. Finance director Ronny Hermansen bought 10,000 shares at 264p each and non-executive director Staffan Ek bought the same number at 258p.

• Tony Edwards, a director at Innovise, has bought 800,000 shares for his pension plan at 24.5p. He now owns 1.2 million shares.

• George Lossius, chief executive at media software business Publishing Technology, has bought 7,520 shares at a price of 75p each. He now holds 420,627 shares.

• Tony Rice, chief executive of telecoms group Cable & Wireless Communications, has bought one million shares at 49.7p each following results.

• Three directors at corporate finance group Arden Partners have increased their holdings.

Non-executive director Howard Flight bought 98,000 shares, his first stake in the company. Fellow non-executive Tony Bartlett bought 25,000 shares and now holds 882,000 shares. Finance director Trevor Norris, bought 49,000 shares and now holds 679,600 shares. They each paid 51p.

In September the company said it would not meet market expectations but has recently completed two large corporate transactions and said equity trading had been better than expected.