Cern spin-off boosts optimism in Advanced Oncotherapy

SHARES in medical technology firm Advanced Oncotherapy rose last month after it announced it was acquiring a spin-off from the Cern nuclear research laboratory.

The Adam business, which is being sold by a private Swiss holding and investment company, is developing particle accelerators to treat cancer.

Despite the rise chief executive Michael Sinclair went into the market three times to increase his stake. In total he bought more than 17 million shares at around 1.4p each, taking his stake to more than 69 million shares.

• John Hartup, a non-executive director of pharmaceutical group Clinigen, has sold 500,000 shares at 265p each. He retains a stake of 33,934 shares.

• Dr Philip Stimpson, chief executive of Mediwatch, purchased 100,000 shares at 2.5p each. He now holds 24.4 million, around 17.3 per cent of the company.

• More than £3.5 million worth of shares in Spaceandpeople, the Glasgow-based retail marketing group, have changed hands.

Non-executive director Maurice Helfgott, along with Maurice and Michael Bennett, who received the shares when they sold their company Retail Profile to Spaceandpeople in 2010, have disposed of them to institutional shareholders. Matthew Bending, chief executive of Spaceandpeople, said the sales had been expected.

“We are particularly pleased that their shares have been acquired by several new as well as existing institutional shareholders,” he commented.

• Several directors at bakery chain Greggs have upped their holdings after the company said profits were likely to come in at the lower end of the range of market expectations.

Ian Durant was the biggest buyer, purchasing 9,750 shares at 399.6p each.

• Several directors at broking group Arden Partners have upped their holdings.

Deputy executive chairman Jonathan Keeling purchased 684,609 ordinary shares and now holds 2.175 million shares.

Steve Wassell, chief operating officer, bought 190,000 shares and now holds 563,743 shares. Chairman Peter Moon bought 62,500 shares and now holds 112,500 shares. They paid 40p each for the shares.

In March the company said trading for the first four months of the financial year had been satisfactory.

It said although it was encouraged by the pipeline of corporate finance work, it also remained cautious of the global economic outlook and said second-half performance depended on market conditions.