BP Share News (BP.)

LONDON (Alliance News) - The following is a summary of director dealings reported in London on Wednesday.
----------
BP Wednesday said its head of safety increased his shareholding as the oil and gas major posted a loss for 2015 in excess of USD5.00 billion on Tuesday.

Executive Vice President of Safety and Operational Risk Bob Fryar bought 34,500 American Depositary Shares at USD29.00 each on Tuesday. One ADS is equivalent to 6 ordinary shares.

His total shareholding was undisclosed.

BP's upstream division was hit by lower oil prices and it booked large charges related to the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. It reported an underlying replacement cost profit that was way below analysts expectations for the last quarter of 2015, causing the oil and gas company's underlying profit for the full year to more than halve, with large amounts of items causing BP to swing to an overall replacement cost loss for the year.

BP also took further steps to adjust the business to suit the low oil price environment by announcing 3,000 further jobs cuts over the next two years in its downstream unit, building on the 4,000 it announced for its upstream business in 2015.

Shares in BP closed down 1.6% at 329.81 pence Wednesday.
----------
Healthcare IT services company Instem said it has raised GBP5.0 million through a share placing to back its acquisition plans.

The company has raised the funds by issuing 2.5 million shares at 200.00 pence per share. Shares in the company were untraded on Wednesday, having last traded at 202.11p.

The placing will be conditional on securing shareholder approval, and the proceeds will be used to back acquisitions by the company, along with funds to support its organic growth and boost working capital.

Non-Executive Director Mike McGoun subscribed for 22,500 of the shares in the placing.

In addition to the placing, the DG 2008 Discretionary Settlement, of which Chairman David Gare is a trustee, and Non-Executive Director David Shepwin are to sell shares in the company at the same price as the placing.

The DG settlement will sell 600,000 shares, while Shepwin will sell 200,000.

Shares closed down 1.4% at 202.11p Wednesday.
----------
Deltex Medical Group, an oesophageal doppler monitoring company, revealed a package of three measures backed by management and a key shareholder to raise up to about GBP3.0 million, enabling it to pay off existing debt and target the US market.

The money will be raised through a placing of shares for GBP1.1 million, and open offer to raise up to GBP750,000, and new convertible loan notes to raise GBP1.2 million.

The company said 27.9 million new shares will be placed with "institutional and other" shareholders, priced at 4.0 pence per share, with qualifying shareholders to be given the chance to participate at the same price in the open offer of one new share for every 11.711 already held.

The new loan notes, which are convertible into equity at 6.0p per share, and are due in 2019 with an interest rate of 8% in the meantime.

The GBP1.1 million raised under the placing and any proceeds from the open offer will be available for US expansion and working capital, the company said.

It added that "to the extent that up to GBP750,000 is raised from the open offer, it has agreed to use a portion of the sums raised through the loan notes' subscription equal to the first GBP425,000 raised to repay Amati Tranche 2 with any balance being applied to fund working capital and to accelerate the US roll-out".

Chairman Nigel Keen intends to subscribe for a total of GBP500,000 in the placing, equivalent to 12.5 million shares. In addition, Imperialise Ltd, a company linked to Keen, plans on subscribing for GBP500,000 of the convertible debt.

Jonathan Shaw, the company's finance director, plans on spending GBP500,000 on 125,000 shares in the placing, while non-executive directors Julian Cazalet, Mark Wippell, Christopher Jones are due to participate as well. The three non-executive directors are to spend a combined GBP85,000 in the placing, for a total of 2,125,000 shares.

Shares in Deltex closed down 8.1% at 4.25 pence Wednesday.
----------
UK-based stem cell therapy company ReNeuron Group said Chairman John Berriman bought 318,476 shares at a price of 3.14 pence per share on Tuesday. Following this transaction, Berriman holds 1 million shares which represents a 0.033% stake in the company. The stock closed up 4.2% at 3.12p Wednesday.
----------
Defence outsourcer and engineering services company Babcock International Group said Non-Executive Director Jeff Randall bought 1,134 shares at a price of GBP8.805 per share Wednesday. Following this transaction, Randall now holds 4,268 shares. The stock closed down 1.8% at 877.34p Wednesday.
----------
WH Smith said Managing Director Carl Cowling bought 5,535 shares at a price of 1,824.00 pence per share on Wednesday. Cowling now holds 11,780 shares in the company. Shares in the books and stationery retailer closed down 0.7% at 1,816.15p Wednesday.
----------
Hargreaves Lansdown said Risk and Compliance Director Rob Byet bought 1,499 shares at a price of GBP12.608 each Wednesday. Following this transaction, Byett now holds 2,751 shares.The stock closed down 3.4% at 1,272.34p Wednesday.
----------

By Arvind Bhunjun; arvindbhunjun@alliancenews.com; @ArvindBhunjun

Copyright 2016 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.