GBO.L Share News (GBO)

LONDON (Alliance News) - The following is a summary of director dealings reported in London on Monday.
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Globo said that Chief Executive Officer Costis Papadimitrakopoulos and Chief Financial Officer Dimitris Gryparis both have resigned, and a board has been set up to "ascertain the true financial position of the company".

The announcement follows a report published by New York-based hedge fund Quintessential Capital Management last week in which it said it had collected "overwhelming evidence suggesting the existence of what appears to us a large-scale conspiracy to deceive investors and creditors through pervasive and systematic accounting manipulation."

Globo last Friday said it refuted "all allegations" made in the report, and requested its shares be suspended from trading in order to give it more time to provide a more detailed response.

An emergency board meeting was held on Saturday to discuss the allegations in the report and to "ascertain the actions that would be required to resolve the matter", the company said. At this meeting Papadimitrakopoulos "brought to the attention of the board certain matters regarding the falsification of data and the misrepresentation of the company's financial situation, and offered his resignation", as did Gryparis, Globo said on Monday.

Following the meeting and legal advice, a committee was set up consisting of non-executive directors only, which accepted the resignations. "All of the executive directors have agreed to make themselves available and fully co-operate with any investigations," Globo said.

However, Globo also said that Papadimitrakopoulos had informed the company that up to last Thursday he has sold 42.05 million shares in the company, and pledged 10 million shares under a personal loan agreement with Lantau Holdings Ltd - a loan that will default at close of business Monday due to two consecutive days of the suspension of the company's shares from trading.

At Globo's last quoted price before suspension of 29.45 pence, the share sale would amount to GBP11.9 million.

This means Papadimitrakopoulos' holding in the company has been reduced from 18.67%, or 69.78 million shares, to 7.42%, or 27.73 million shares. Globo noted that it has requested additional details about these dealings, and does not yet "possess all relevant information about their timing and nature." It will make a further announcement once this information is received.

Prior to the share suspension, Globo had a market capitalisation of GBP105.6 million.

Globo's joint corporate broker Canaccord Genuity Ltd has resigned with immediate effect.
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SIG said Chief Executive Officer Stuart Mitchell bought 10,000 shares at a price of 135.2829 pence per share on Monday. Following the transaction, Mitchell holds 176,250 shares or 0.03% of issued shares. The company also said Finance Director Douglas Grant Robertson bought 10,000 shares at the same price Monday. He now holds 112,362 shares or an 0.02% stake. The building products company last Thursday said its sales performance has diverged in the first nine months between its UK and European operations and said continued weakness in the latter, plus some softness in the UK repair, maintenance and improvement market, mean it now expects its underlying pretax profit to fall year-on-year. The stock closed down 0.8% at 136.49p Monday.
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Porta Communications said Non-Executive Director Raymond McKeeve bought 304,272 shares at a price of 9.5 pence per share Friday. Following this transaction, McKeeve is beneficially interested in 4.7 million shares in Porta representing 1.66% of the issued share capital. Shares in the marketing and communications business closed down 4.9% at 9.15p Monday.
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Engineering services group Renew Holdings said a discretionary managed fund in which Non-Executive Director John Bishop and his wife are invested acquired 1,890 shares at 320 pence each on September 11. Following this transaction, Bishop and his connected parties have a holding in the company of 11,890 shares or 0.019% of the issued share capital. The stock closed down 0.2% at 335.50p Monday.
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PureTech Health said Chairman Joichi Ito bought 6,650 shares at around 149 pence per share on Thursday worth GBP9,896. Following this transaction, Ito holds 1.4 million shares, which represents a 0.59% stake. Shares in the science-driven healthcare company closed down 0.2% at 153.00p Monday.
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Firestone Diamonds said Chief Executive Officer Stuart Brown bought 21,317 shares at a price of 21 pence per share Monday. Following this transaction, Brown is now interested in 507,148 shares representing approximately 0.2% of the issued share capital. Shares in the AIM-quoted diamond explorer and miner closed down 1.5% at 20.20p Monday.
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By Arvind Bhunjun; arvindbhunjun@alliancenews.com; @ArvindBhunjun

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