Director Trades: Who's cashing in on the coal boom?

ASX director buying activity continues to be strong in the second half of March as the market rebounds from earlier slumps. From mega sales to big buys across sectors from resources, which is looking to ride a commodity boom, to technology and finance, there’s some director trades well worth noting.

Bowen Coking Coal

Cashing in on the coal boom is Bowen Coking Coal (ASX:BCB) non-executive director Matthew Latimore, who got rid of 1,042,600 shares on March 11 and 14 for 28 cents per share equating to ~$292,000.

BCB expects the first production in the March quarter from its Bluff mine, which will be followed by the start of offtake contracts in the June quarter with forecasted delivery production of 1-1.2Mtpa over four to six years.

The BCB share price has risen 340% in one year to 26 cents.

CEO buys up big in newly listed NiCo

Executive director and CEO Rod Corps is bullish on newly ASX-listed nickel miner NiCo Resources (ASX:NC1), a spin-out from Metals X (ASX:MLX). NiCo listed on the local bourse in January with the price of the metal steadily climbing as EV demand heats up.

Corps ponied up for 1.862,619 ordinary shares for an outlay of ~$1.46 million on March 10. He added another 718,330 ordinary shares for ~$520k on March 18.

The spin-out covers the Central Musgrave Project (CMP) tenements which comprise three main exploration licences – Wingellina (WA), Claude Hill (SA) and Mt Davies (SA). Shares in NiCo have risen an impressive ~178% since listing currently at ~$1.02.

Uechrtritz dumps ~$1.58 million of Seven shares

Long-term director of Seven Group Holdings (ASX:SVW) Richard Uechtritz sold ~$1.58m worth of stock in the company in a series of trades between March 14 and 18. The experienced retail exec was a former CEO and managing director of JB Hi-Fi and is still on the company board. He was co-founder of Australia’s two leading photo chains, Rabbit Photo and Smiths Kodak Express, and a director of Kodak (Australasia) Pty Ltd, which way back before digital images came along did alright trade.

Uechtritz still owns more than 335k shares in Seven, the flagship public group of the billionaire Stokes family which invests and operates in the media, mining, and construction sectors. The share price of Seven have fallen ~3% in the past year to ~$21.41.

Co-founders bet long

Heads in wealth management firm L1 Long Short Fund (ASX:LSF) have been spending up big to increase their stake in the stock. Co-founders, joint managing directors, and chief investment officers Mark Landau and Raphael Lamm have both ponied up for more than 197k shares each for a cool ~$576k each.

The company was listed on the ASX back in 2018. The novel firm employs both a long strategy (buying shares) and a short strategy (selling shares to profit if the company falls in value). The fund lost more than 30% of its value in the early days of being on the bourse, but it has recovered and been steadily rising. In the past year alone it is up 35% to $2.96.

Fenix Resources new chair shows $125k of faith

The new non-executive chairman of iron ore miner Fenix Resources (ASX:FEX) John Wellborn has shown his faith in the company, dropping ~$125k for 500,000 worth of shares. Wellborn, who was appointed in November, now has a total of 12 million shares in the company.

The price of iron ore has been skyrocketing, especially as Chinese mills wrestle with supply shortages due to new lockdowns as the government tries to contain outbreaks of Covid-19. Iron ore is currently trading at ~US$150 per dry metric tonne. The Fenix share price is up 1~0.87% in the month to ~26 cents and ~10% in one year.

To finish off, the biggest trade goes to cloud connectivity company Megaport (ASX:MP1) founder and chairman Bevan Slattery who offloaded 3 million shares in a trade via the UBS equities desk. The stock changed hands at $13.05 a share, which was a 4.2% discount to the five-day VWAP, amounting to ~$39 million in Slattery’s pocket.