Profit warning sees feast of Premier Foods share buying

SEVERAL directors have been increasing their stakes in Premier Foods after shares in the company were hit hard by a profits warning earlier this month.

Rising raw material costs were blamed for the warning that third-quarter results were significantly below the company’s expectations.

Premier Foods, which owns brands such as Hovis, Indian foods label Sharwood’s and Batchelors soup, said sales volumes had fallen 8 per cent in the three months to 30 September.

Premier added that it was holding talks with lenders to prevent it from breaching covenants over its debt which are due to be tested at the end of the year.

The group said it would sell off a number of businesses to focus on eight “power brands” in a bid to drive future growth.

Shares in the company have lost more than 70 per cent of their value over the past year. Four directors have increased their stakes, including group operations director Bob Spooner, human resources director Brian Carlton and technical and innovation director Dean Holroyd. They together bought more than 600,000 shares in the company at prices between 5.9p and 6.3p.

n Juan Cristobal Pavez, a non-executive director at oil and gas explorer Geopark Holdings, has spent heavily to increase his stake in the business. He bought 130,500 shares at 480p each to take his total holding up to 2.16 million shares in the company, which is focused on interests in Latin America.

n Barry Whittles, chief executive of accident repair group Just Car Clinics, has added to his stake in the company which last month announced plans to leave the Alternative Investment Market. Whittles bought 90,115 shares at 13.46p each and now holds more than two million shares.

n Thomas Crawford, founder and non-executive director at recruitment group Harvey Nash, has bought 150,000 shares at 64.2p each and now holds more than 4.7 million shares. Last month the group reported strong earnings growth for the half year to July.

n Andrey Pannikov, a non-executive director at Bayfield Energy, has increased his holding with the purchase of 675,000 shares at 50.65p. He now holds more than 38.5 million shares in the oil and gas company, which has interests in Trinidad and Russia.

n Two directors of investment management firm Brooks Macdonald have each sold 10,000 shares in the firm at 1,211p.

Chief executive Chris Macdonald and chief investment officer Richard Spencer sold following figures which showed a 37 per cent rise in pre-tax profits to £7.8 million.