Corporate: Uniti directors buy another $5.1m in shares as LBNCo acquisition closes

Four directors of aspiring NBN competitor Uniti Group (ASX:UWL) have bought more of their own company — $5.1m between them.

Leading the buyers was Vaughan Bowen, who was the founder of M2 before he sold it to Vocus and joined Uniti in February. He bought $3.35m, with his stake in the company now worth over $10m.

His colleague, Graeme Barclay, bought $1.46m taking his stake to nearly $8m, just over 1 per cent of the company. Also, John Lindsay bought $160,997 and Kathryn Gramp bought $156,910.

The purchase came in the company’s $100m capital raise and on the same day the company changed its name from Uniti Wireless to Uniti Group. The funds will help the company acquire fibre to the home operator LBNCo as it aspires to rival the NBN.

Barclay told shareholders last week in the company’s annual report that Uniti forecasts the acquisition to be over 60 per cent accretive for shareholders in EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation) terms.

Uniti listed in February at 20c and went as high as $1.77. This morning it was trading at $1.48. Despite its retreat from its mid-winter highs, it remains 2019’s most successful IPO.

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In other ASX corporate news today:

Fluence Corporation (ASX:FLC) received an order for five NIROBOX units from a Middle Eastern customer. Its technology will ship over the next two weeks and will desalinate seawater. “This win further validates our view that decentralised pre-engineered Smart Product Solutions are the future of the water treatment industry,” CEO Henry Charrabe said.

PNG-focused bank Kina Securities (ASX:KSL) has completed the acquisition of ANZ’s SME business in PNG. The deal makes them the second largest retail bank in PNG and will help the company improve its technological capabilities, by inheriting 72 ATMs and 1,800 EFTPOS terminals formerly belonging to ANZ. ANZ however will continue to focus on institutional and large corporate banking.