Member Info for jange

Global Energy Development (GED) Director name: Mr Stephen C Voss Amount purchased: 25,000 @ 100.00p Value: £25,000

Camper & Nicholsons Marina Investments Ltd. (CNMI) Director name: Mr Martin Bralsford Amount purchased: 250,000 @ 10.00p Value: £25,000

Cape (CIU) Director name: Mr Joe Oatley Amount purchased: 15,000 @ 185.00p Value: £27,750

F&C Asset Management (FCAM) Director name: Mr Edward Bramson Amount purchased: 47,505 @ 98.89p Value: £46,978

Top Director Buys SDL (SDL) Director name: Mr Mark Lancaster Amount purchased: 170,532 @ 439.82p Value: £750,034

The Chairman and Chief Executive of troubled business, translation and communications software company SDL has added 170,532 shares to his stake in the company one day after it issued a profit warning. Mark Lancaster, who also founded the group in 1992, was clearly keen to show his faith in the group after a review of the business resulted in a reduction to its profit expectations for the financial year ending December 31st. He purchased the shares at 439.82p each, costing him a total of £750,034. In a statement made on Monday, Lancaster said: "Despite the short term shortfalls in the business, I feel more confident in SDL's technology stack and service solutions than I have ever been. In 2013 we will make additional investments in sales and marketing to drive long-term growth. We expect this additional investment to be between £3.0m to £4.0m in 2013." The group expects pre-tax profits before amortisation for the year to total between £36m and £37m on revenues of between £270m and £272m. The news caused the share price to fall around 70p on Monday. The stock has lost 32%, equal to 205p, in the past 12 months. Following the transaction, Lancaster's holding in the firm totals 668,946 shares, equal to 0.83% of the issued share capital.

Topps Tiles said revenues and profits were up after reported it an overall increase in year-on-year sales for the first time since 2007. The firm said this came after a tough first half gave way to a considerably improved second period. Like-for-like sales dropped 4.7% in the first half of the financial year, but then grew 3.5% during the second. Topps added that in the first seven weeks of the new financial period, like-for-like revenues were up 1.0%. Group revenue in the year to September 29th was up 1.2% to £177.7m, while pre-tax profits jumped 58% to £12.5m. Basic earnings per share were up 5.14p from 3.04p the year before. The company said it had increased market share by 1% to 27%, which it said reflected a successful strategy of 'inspiring customers' home improvement projects' and increased focus on trade customers. Gross margin increased to 60.0%, from 59.6% the previous year, reflecting further supply chain efficiencies and proactive management of cost base. "Whilst our most recent trading period offers some encouragement, we continue to be cautious in our outlook," the statement said. The firm added that it would continue with a cautious expansionary approach and open new stores where strong trading locations became available.

"We are opening a new channel of sales within the broker-introduced market. We are creating a direct sales presence in niche markets, which will benefit from the recent withdrawal from SME asset-based lending by ING Lease (UK), who accounted for about 40% of the broker market, a move we believe will create a significant opportunity for us." The portfolio decreased by 5.0% over the period to £79m from £83m last year, but this is expected to grow in the second half. The group was keen to stress that the strong performance of the portfolio and good cost control enabled it to deliver a better level of profitability and improve earnings per share to 0.4p (2011: 0.2p). Maybury added that he hopes to introduce a progressive dividend policy in the future, and believes that, depending on the company's leverage, it will be able to re-introduce a dividend payment in March 2015.

This difficulty has, however, been largely solved by the subscription, placing and open offer of unsecured convertible loan notes raising £8.9m. The majority of this amount was subscribed for by a single shareholder who has told board members that he is focused on building the business and remaining a long-term investor. Maybury said that the raising has "put the uncertainty behind us and we are now in a comfortable position". Looking forward, he said the focus of the company is now on growing the portfolio, making acquisitions, promoting organic growth, and increasing the return on assets to 2% by March 2014. The return on assets is currently at 0.8%, compared to 0.5% a year ago. Maybury revealed his confidence in the business is going forward, saying: "All the ingredients are there - the staff, the premises, the IT equipment - for us to operate a bigger business. We do not expect the cost of sales to see much change going forward.

Private and Commercial Finance Group (PCFG), an AIM-listed independent finance company, has expressed its confidence for the future having developed a strong platform from which to grow its portfolio. After a four year "period of survival", the firm saw pre-tax profits rocket 40% in the half year ended September 30th, as a decline in turnover was offset by a reduction to both the cost of sales and administrative expenses. Revenues dropped from from £26.89m to £20.82m year-on-year, while the cost of sales fell to £14.65m (2011: £19.23m) and admin expenses decreased to £3.75m (2011: £4.69m). Profit was also boosted by a fall in the interest paid, from £2.7m to £2.1m year-on-year. Speaking during an interview with Sharecast and Digital Look, Scott Maybury, PCFG's Chief Executive, explained that the past four years has seen a shortage of funding as banks exited the sector or became reluctant to loan in the long-term, creating a situation for the company where lending was long and borrowing was short.

Nomura said that Stagecoach (rated 'buy'), despite its premium rating, is its preferred choice on the back its total shareholder return track record. Go-Ahead is also marked as a 'buy': the broker said that the current valuation reflects "an attractive risk-reward rail profile and [the business] has a self-help bus story that should offer underlying earnings momentum over the coming years". While National Express (rated 'neutral') is "attractively priced", it suffers from its exposure to Spain. Meanwhile, First Group (also rated 'neutral'), is said to have "enviable" market positions but an "unenviable" balance sheet.

Nomura has highlighted 'the missing value of rail' in its review of the public transport sector and labelled Stagecoach as its key 'buy' in the category. The broker highlighted that public transport companies each operate in a diverse set of businesses - bus, rail, coach, student transport and sightseeing tours - and each division has its own set of margins, returns, capital intensity and regulatory risks. Nomura said: "Through this rigorous process, we have identified that while UK rail contains some of the higher-risk characteristics of the public transport businesses, its value is barely considered at current sector share price levels. "As the debacle of West Coast fades and the market turns to refranchising once more, we calculate that just £260m of the £1.6bn rail value is reflected by the market. During the last refranchising round, in the mid-2000s, the sector outperformed the wider market by 40%." While the broker recommends buying a basket of public transport companies to lock in to the rail upside, it said that its sector preferences are those companies with strong balance sheets, good management track records and exposure to the more solid transport businesses.

Telecity: Berenberg reduces target price from 1100p to 990p, buy recommendation remains unchanged.

TUI Travel: Barclays raises target price from 250p to 320p, overweight rating reiterated.

Whitbread: Numis raises target price from 2350p to 2650p and upgrades to add.

Zambeef: Panmure Gordon moves target price from 45p to 53p, buy rating kept.

Stagecoach: Nomura moves target price from 305p to 310p, buy recommendation maintained.

Shanks Group: Goldman Sachs moves target price from 118p to 119p, buy recommendation remains unchanged.

Servern Trent: Barclays reduces target price from 1695p to 1640p, equal weight rating remains unchanged.

SDL: Panmure Gordon downgrades from buy to hold, reiterating a target price of 538p.