John Whittaker increases stake in Intu

The Deputy Chairman of Intu (formerly Capital Shopping Centres), John Whittaker, has boosted his stake in the group by 60,000 shares two weeks after the company posted a stable set of full year results. Whittaker, who joined the board after selling the well-known Trafford Centre shopping mall to Capital Shopping Centres in exchange for roughly a quarter stake in the group, purchased the shares at 328.25p a go, totalling £196,950. The company said at the end of February that its profit for 2012 came in at £159m, significantly higher than the £34m seen the previous year, mainly as a result of valuation and transaction-related items. At the year-end, the net asset value (NAV) per share was 392p (2011: 391p), the debt to assets ration was 49.5% (2011: 48.5%), and the market value of investment properties was £7,073m (2011: £6,960m). Alongside its results, the group also announced that it is placing up to 86m new ordinary shares at 342.9p per share, equal to up to 9.9% of the company's issued share capital, to raise funds for the acquisition of Midsummer Place Shopping Centre in Milton Keynes. The acquisition of Midsummer Place, which has an annual footfall of over 17m and current vacancy rate of 3.0%, will be made for a consideration is £250.50m. Whittaker's total number of ordinary shares now stands at 189.87m, equal to 19.89% of the issued share capital. Top Director BuysIntu Properties (INTU) Director name: Mr John Whittaker Amount purchased: 60,000 @ 328.25p Value: £196,950SABMiller (SAB) Director name: Mr Mark ArmourAmount purchased: 3,000 @ 3,470.50p Value: £104,115PureCircle Ltd. (DI) (PURE) Director name: Mr William MitchellAmount purchased: 40,000 @ 255.00p Value: £102,000African Barrick Gold (ABG) Director name: Mr Greg HawkinsAmount purchased: 20,000 @ 235.75p Value: £47,150Wood Group (John) (WG.) Director name: Ms Mary Shafer-MalickiAmount purchased: 2,000 @ 874.81p Value: £17,496Electrocomponents (ECM) Director name: Ms Karen GuerraAmount purchased: 7,525 @ 265.30p Value: £19,964Quarto Group Inc. (QRT) Director name: Mr Marcus LeaverAmount purchased: 10,000 @ 148.50p Value: £14,850Top Director SellsDiageo (DGE) Director name: Mr Ivan MenezesAmount sold: 227,664 @ 2,979.25p Value: £6,782,680Standard Chartered (STAN) Director name: Mr Stefano Paolo BertaminiAmount sold: 43,901 @ 1,805.28p Value: £792,536Mandarin Oriental International (Singapore) (MDO) Director name: Mr Michael HobsonAmount sold: 279,000 @ $1.66 Value: $462,442Rolls-Royce Holdings (RR.) Director name: Mr Mark MorrisAmount sold: 3,953 @ 1,048.00p Value: £41,427NR