Here’s our weekly list of ASX small cap directors who were buying or selling their own stock just before the end of the financial year:

Who’s selling

Nuheara (ASX:NUH) director Mike Ottaviano sold $159,000 of shares last week, saying it was for a tax bill he picked up after getting a pile of shares — 24.8 million to be precise — when the company listed in 2016.

This is the first time any Nuheara director has sold their shares.

Perth-based Nuheara makes “Iqbud” earbuds that function as music listening devices — as well as an enhanced version called “Iqbuds Boost” which is pitched as a hearing assistance device.

Elk Petroleum (ASX:ELK) boss Brad Lingo’s wife had to make a last minute tax sale as well, getting rid of $142,000 of shares.

ASX rules say that what’s yours is mine when it comes to married couples’ investments, when one is on a board. Amy Anderson sold her whole stake in Elk, leaving Mr Lingo in effective control of 18.8 million shares.

Not selling for tax was the chairman of Winha Commerce and Trade (ASX:WQW) who offloaded $1.4 million of shares.

In the grand scheme of things it wasn’t that big a deal however. Zhuowei Zhong’s stake dropped from 48 million shares to 45 million and he still owns almost half the company.

Magnetite Mines (ASX:MGT) chairman Gordon Toll sold $244,000 of shares, or 16 million units, from a holding company called The Coffee House Group Limited.

Mr Toll still owns 20 per cent of the company mostly via Coffee House, a company registered in the Isle of Man tax haven.

High Peak Royalties (ASX:HPR) chairman Anthony Wooles sold $200,000 of stock to new institutional shareholder Lowell Resources Fund (ASX:LRT).

Mr Wooles still owns 20 per cent of the company.

Who’s buying

David Lenigas, the big man in the Pilbara goldfields, made his first purchase as a director of a very different company, UK oil biz Doriemus (ASX:DOR).

Mr Lenigas spent $35,000 on market on 248,971 shares, so he now owns 1.6 million shares and 3 million options.

Michael Fotios, the man behind the Eastern Goldfields (ASX:EGS) controversy, was sowing seeds among the companies he participates in.

As chairman and CEO of Redbank Copper (ASX:RCP) he spent $2,627 on almost 100,000 shares.

As a director of Pegasus Metals (ASX:PUN) he spent $5,410 on 235,000 shares.

And as chairman of Horseshoe Metals (ASX:HOR) he was given a flea in his ear by the ASX for filing a late notice that he’d spent $6,857 on 435,000 shares.

 

Melbourne millionaire Geoff Pearce has been buying — but also received a ticking off for filing late at Mcpherson’s (ASX:MCP).

“We refer to the attached Appendix 3Y [Change of Director’s Interest Notice] for Mr Geoff Pearce dated 27 June 2018,” Mcpherson’s said in an ASX announcement last week.

“We acknowledge that the Appendix is being lodged outside the timeframe required by the ASX Listing Rules, for which Mr Pearce and the company unreservedly apologise.”

Mr Pearce said in the ASX announcement he’d been doing so much trading lately, he’d accidentally missed sending this one in.

He spent $115,986 on market at the end of May on Mcpherson’s shares, bringing his total to 691,000.

At Strategic Minerals (ASX:SMC) the director who is also trying to take the company over has lifted his stake in the company to 85 per cent.

Christopher Wallin is the sole owner of QGold, which made a 40c bid for Strategic Minerals in December last year.

But since lobbing the bid Mr Wallin, via QGold, has been building a position from just over 3 million shares to 60.1 million last week.

Steven Wakefield has made the first director buy-in to Croplogic (ASX:CLI) since its disappointing ASX debut last year. Croplogic is trading at 3c — down 85 per cent from its 20c issue price in September.

He wasn’t spending more than pocket change though: Mr Wakefield bought 3545 shares for 2.8c each on market.

It cost him $99.26.

 

Dicker Data (ASX:DDR) board member Vladimir Mitnovetski spent $563,450 on almost 200,000 shares. He now owns 381,000 shares.

Alkane Resources (ASX:ALK) chairman Ian Gandel bought $320,000 of stock on market, and owns 23 per cent of the company.

Ensurance (ASX:ENA) chairman Anthony Leibowitz has bought into the company for the sixth time this year. This time the notice was that he received $344,000 of stock bought through a recent entitlement offer.

Mr Leibowitz now owns 17 million shares in Ensurance and six different sets of options.

The founder of Servcorp (ASX:SRV) Alfred Moufarrige bought $200,000 of stock on market, maintaining his position as controlling shareholder.

Option time

The board of drone-killer Droneshield (ASX:DRO) board has received a whole pile of almost-free performance options.

Shareholders voted in May to give the board 21 million of zero exercise price options, although not without a large protest vote ‘no’ against a portion issued to chief Oleg Vornik.

That means they don’t have to pay a fee — an exercise price — to turn them into shares.

But they can’t convert those options unless the company makes more than $10 million in revenue in a 12-month period within the next three years.

They have a long way to go. Last year, Droneshield made $310,724.

The reason they’re getting a big pile of shares is “to provide a performance linked incentive component in the remuneration package”.

Calidus Resources (ASX:CAI) manager David Reeves exercised 5 million 3c options to lift his stake in the company to 14.7 million shares. It cost him $150,000.

Po Valley (ASX:PVE) chairman Michael Masterman and director Kevin Bailey received $300,000 and $700,000 convertible notes.

The notes have a conversion price of 4.2c a share and convert to 7.1 million and 16.7 million shares respectively.

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