Director dealings: Sign of the times

TECHNOLOGY group Silanis International began working on the development of the electronic signature almost two decades ago.

The company now helps financial services companies and public sector organisations to speed up the processing of documents where signatures are required.

Last month the company announced it had won a contract with a major insurance group with more than ten million customers. The news was followed by several directors at the company increasing their holdings at 5.5p a share.

Chairman Justin LaFayette bought 1.5 million shares and now holds more than 6.4 million shares and president Tommy Petrogiannis and finance director Matthew Lane bought their first stakes with the purchase of 200,000 shares.

Boardroom colleague Vernon Lobo bought one million shares and now has 1.3 million.

• Ian Bruce, a non-executive director at Hardy Oil & Gas, has increased his holding as part of the India-focused group's recent placing. Bruce bought 60,000 shares at 201p each and now holds 439,822 shares.

• Ed Warner, chairman of stockbroking group Panmure Gordon, has doubled his stake in the company with the purchase of 100,000 shares at 33p each.

• Richard Jackson, chairman of insurance services group NCI Vehicle Rescue, has topped up his stake in the company with the purchase of 20,000 shares at 30p each. He now holds 179,500 shares.

• Sean Nutley, chief executive of asbestos removal specialist Silverdell, has increased his holding with the purchase of 74,000 shares at 6.75p each. He now holds 3.66 million shares.

• Alan Smith, a non-executive director at technology group Tangent Communications, has bought 50,000 shares at 5.375p. He now holds 425,000 shares.

• Three directors at EnCore Oil have taken some profits on their stakes following strong share price gains. The board members, including chief executive Alan Booth, sold a total of 4.55 million shares at around 143p each. The three still hold more than 15 million shares in the company between them.