Directors Trades: A former AFL exec dropped nearly $3m on a stock going private

Sometimes ASX small caps end up going going private again and Latin American car classifieds site Latam Autos (ASX:LAA) did just that on Friday, but not before Mike Fitzpatrick bought nearly $3m in a rights issue.

Fitzpatrick is best known as the former head of the AFL commission, but he is also a director of Carnegie Clean Energy (ASX:CCE) and Latam.

Latam exited the ASX permanently on Friday, arguing the benefits of listing a Latin America-based business in Australia did not outweigh the administrative costs.

But on its way out the company raised capital and Fitzpatrick bought more shares.

Now the only remaining Latin American classified company on the ASX is Frontier Digital Ventures (ASX:FDV).

COVID-19 forced the dental industry to significantly cut back its services for a month, but life is gradually returning to normal.

Benjamin Gisz and Alexander Abrahams dropped $1m between them on Pacific Smiles Group (ASX:PSQ) shares.

Oddly, Abrahams’ notice showed him as having disposed of shares even though his total number of shares has gone up.

While bug killer Zoono (ASX:ZNO) is no longer surging, it still sits nearly 2,000 per cent up in 12 months.

One of its directors, Don Clarke, sold 230,000 shares that cost him $20,000 a year ago and earned him $381,309 when he sold.

Zoono said the sale was to provide short-term funding to one of his other businesses and he would buy the shares back later on.

Brendan O’Kane and Brian Mitchell from tech play Otherlevels (ASX:OLV) bought $456,165 and $520,814 worth of shares, respectively, in the company’s rights issue.

Acrow Formwork and Construction Services’ (ASX:ACF) Joshua May sold $120,000 worth of shares directly to his colleague Peter Lancken.

Confidence in their company’s commodities

Peter O’Connor, from aspiring uranium miner Boss Resources (ASX:BOE), bought $194,207 on market. The move comes as the uranium prices climbed above $US30 ($45.91).

This is the point where managing director Duncan Craib told Stockhead earlier this year prices had to be for the industry to revive.

A commodity that has seen less of a rosy time in recent weeks is oil, with futures prices briefly turning negative. However Otto Energy’s (ASX:OEL) John Jetter bought $173,645 worth of shares in the company.

Marco Romero and Roman Shklanka from Euro Manganese (ASX:EMN) bought nearly $250,000 between them in a placement.

Alisdair Cooke from gold explorer Anova Metals (ASX:AWV), which has projects in Western Australia and Utah, bought $116,223 worth in a rights issue.

An interesting trade this week was the sale of 811,112 Jupiter Energy (ASX:JPR) shares at 19.5c per share by director Geoffrey Gander.

The Kazakhstan-focused energy play rocketed from 0.2c to as high as 30c (intraday) in just two days before being suspended by the ASX pending queries over the unusual trading activity.

The stock recommenced trading this week but retreated to 3.5c.