Director Dealings: Rotala on right road to ride out recession

PUBLIC transport group Rotala saw strong growth last year and believes it is well placed to take advantage of future opportunities.

Despite the recession, the West Midlands-based company saw turnover grow 14 per cent and operating profits increase by 43 per cent.

The company believes its smaller size, which enables it to take on bus routes that are not viable for the major operators, and moves to encourage more use of public transport to reduce congestion bode well for its future.

Two directors backed that confidence with purchases last week.

Chief executive Simon Dunn increased his stake with the purchase of 30,000 shares at 41p each to take his family's holding past 1.13 million.

Finance director Kim Taylor also bought 25,000 shares at the same price and now holds 357,500.

• Staffan Ek, a non-executive director at Dundee diagnostics business Axis-Shield, bought 5,000 shares at around 280p each. He now holds 20,000 shares in the company.

• Keith Young, deputy chairman at domain name management business Group NBT, has sold 100,000 shares at 275p to reduce his stake to 887,432 shares.

• David Blain, chief financial officer at bio-pharmaceutical group Renovo has bought 40,000 shares at 25.45p each. It represents his first stake in the business.

• Two directors at financial broking firm Tullett Prebon have increased their holdings.

Chief executive Terry Smith bought 400,000 shares at 300.5p each while finance director Paul Mainwaring bought 97,656 shares at the same price.

The company recently announced that bid talks had ended because the two sides involved could not agree on a price.

• Graham Hossie, chief executive of coal and iron ore miner London Mining, has bought 58,674 shares at 200p each to raise his stake to 2m shares.

• Ian Farmer, chief executive of platinum miner Lonmin, has sold 15,000 shares to help buy a house as part of his relocation to South Africa. He received 1556.55p each for the shares and still retains a stake of 65,323 shares.

• Simon Brady, managing director of Euromoney magazine, has sold his holding in parent company Euromoney Institutional Investor. He disposed of 64,509 shares at 586p each.