DIRECTOR DEALINGS SUMMARY: Persimmon Non-Executive Buys First Shares

LONDON (Alliance News) - The following is a summary of director dealings reported in London on Wednesday.
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Persimmon said Non-Executive Director Rachel Kentleton purchased 1,203 shares, jointly with her husband Neil Thompson, at GBP20.7731 per share Tuesday, worth around GBP25,000.

The purchase is Kentleton's only holding in the housebuilder having been appointed in June. She is also strategy director at low-cost airline easyJet.

"We are delighted to welcome Rachel to the board. Her strategic, investor relations and financial experience will add to the balance of skills and experience of our non-executive directors, which will be of great benefit to Persimmon as we continue to develop our business." Nicholas Wrigley, chairman of Persimmon, had said at the time.

The housebuilder said Tuesday that its pretax profit surged in the first half of the year as it boosted margins, sold more homes and did so at higher prices, all while saying that its performance thus far in the traditionally slower summer selling season still looks robust.

The stock closed up 1.6% at 2,116.23 pence Wednesday, one of the best performers in the FTSE 100.
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Aerospace and engineering group Meggitt said Chairman Nigel Rudd and Lesley Rudd, his wife, each bought 10,000 shares at a price of GBP4.969 on Tuesday. Following this transaction, Rudd's holding in the company has increased to 40,000 shares, or 0.005% of the issued share capital. The stock closed 2.2% lower at 486.30 pence Wednesday.
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Auctus Growth said Non-Executive Director Malcolm Burne bought 10,000 shares at a price of GBP0.4875 per share. Following this transaction, Burne holds 283,333 shares, which represents 10.62% stake in the trust. Auctus Growth said earlier Wednesday that it had raised GBP114,499.50 via the placing of 228,999 shares at a price of 50 pence per share. The investment trust plans to use the proceeds to support its future acquisition plans. On Monday, the company said it had pulled out of the proposed acquisition of a social media platform as it would "not be in the best interests" of its shareholders, and posted a GBP100,253 pretax loss for the first half of 2015. The stock closed down 6.2% at 47.35 pence Wednesday.
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By Arvind Bhunjun; arvindbhunjun@alliancenews.com; @ArvindBhunjun

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