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Directors’ Trades: Lots of multi-million dollar trades, but this $15m plunge took the cake
Director Trades
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The past fortnight saw one of the biggest collections of multi-million dollar directors’ trades in 2020.
The biggest trade was a $15 million purchase of shares in the $55 million rights issue of biotech PYC Therapeutics (ASX:PYC).
That trade was made by chairman Alan Tribe. His colleague Bernard Hockings chipped in $500,000.
PYC is fighting various eye disease with “Cell Penetrating Peptides”. Its lead program targets retinitis pigmentosa, which causes vision loss.
While this program is still at the pre-clinical stage it is hoping to get to human trials in the coming months.
| Code | Company | Director | Change | Date | Volume | $ | What |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSQ | Pacific Smiles Group | Hilton Brett | Buy | 23 October | 59,468 | $111,800 | On market |
| PSQ | Pacific Smiles Group | Benjamin Gisz | Buy | 23 October | 1,426,836 | $2,682,452 | On market |
| IMD | Imdex | Anthony Wooles | Buy | 22 October | 700,000 | $952,000 | On market |
| AKG | Academies Australasia | John Schlederer | Buy | 20 October | 500,000 | $127,000 | On market |
| AHX | Apiam Animal Health | Christopher Richards | Buy | 23 October | 584,794 | $359,648 | Dividend Reinvestment Plan |
| JRL | Jindalee Resources | Lindsay Dudfield | Buy | 23 October | 653,300 | $209,056 | Rights Issue |
| GRB | Gibb River Diamonds | Grant Mooney | Sell | 27 October | 1,000,000 | $126,632 | On market |
| PYC | PYC Therapeutics | Alan Tribe | Buy | 28 October | 88,256,376 | $15,003,584 | Rights Issue |
| PYC | PYC Therapeutics | Bernard Hockings | Buy | 28 October | 2,941,177 | $500,000 | Rights Issue |
| NXS | Next Science | Judith Mitchell | Buy | 29 October | 188,200 | $216,769 | On market |
| HNL | HGL | Peter Miller | Buy | 28 October | 5,081,889 | $635,236 | Rights Issue |
| PTB | PTB Group | Stephen Smith | Buy | 30 October | 215,189 | $142,025 | Dividend Reinvestment Plan |
| PNN | PepinNini Minerals | Rebecca Holland-Kennedy | Buy | 30 October | 1,173,410 | $152,543 | Rights Issue |
| SHV | Select Harvests | Paul Thompson | Buy | 29 October | 48,026 | $249,735 | Rights Issue |
| FCL | Fineos | David Hollander | Buy | 21 October | 41,224 | $206,326 | On market |
| MLL | Mali Lithium | Brendan Borg | Buy | 3 November | 1,582,500 | $253,200 | SPP |
| MLL | Mali Lithium | Alistair Cowden | Buy | 3 November | 2,500,000 | $400,000 | SPP |
| CMM | Capricorn Metals | Mark Clark | Buy | 2 November | 85,000 | $144,185 | On market |
| OLI | Oliver's Real Food | Jason Gunn | Sell | 28 October | 5,000,000 | $255,000 | Off market |
| TYR | Tyro Payments | Paul Rickard | Sell | 30 October | 307,061 | $1,148,940 | On market |
| MYD | MyDeal | Paul Greenberg | Buy | 4 November | 200,000 | $259,200 | On market |
| PBH | PointsBet | Brett Patton | Buy | 2 November | 50,000 | $498,799 | On market |
| PF1 | Pathfinder Resources | Sufian Ahmad | Buy | 4 November | 885,000 | $156,205 | On market |
| DGR | DGR Global | Nicholas Mather | Buy | 2 November | 23,367,370 | $1,869,390 | Rights Issue |
| TUA | Tuas | David Teoh | Buy | 3 November | 7,190,590 | $5,321,037 | On market |
| OPY | Openpay | Michael Eidel | Buy | 30 October | 43,000 | $117,240 | On market |
| CMM | Capricorn Metals | Mark Clark | Buy | 5 November | 76,978 | $130,412 | On market |
| CL8 | Collaborate | Stephen Hagop Abolakian | Buy | 30 October | 108,923,611 | $980,312 | Rights Issue |
| SMI | Santana Minerals | Norman Seckold | Buy | 3 November | 900,000 | $180,000 | Placement |
Other multi-million dollar trades
Another big buyer was Benjamin Gisz of dental group Pacific Smiles (ASX:PSQ). Gisz is a representative of TDM Asset Management which bought $2.7 million more shares on market.
His colleague on Pacific Smiles’ board and at TDM, Hilton Brett, also chipped in $111,800. Their company is up 20 per cent in 12 months after falling during COVID-19 in which it was forced to wind back procedures.
Its net profit after tax fell 9.7 per cent, but was still in the black at $8.1m. And its patient fees generated $186.3m, only a 0.6 per cent decrease on FY19.
TPG-founder David Teoh bought $5.3 million more in shares of Tuas (ASX:TUA). Tuas is a spinoff of TPG’s Singapore operations that stayed ASX-listed after Vodafone’s acquisition of TPG (ASX:TPG).
Rounding out the list was DGR Global’s (ASX:DGR) Nicholas Mather who bought nearly $1.9 million in a rights issue. DGR is in the resources sector but it operates as an investment and advisory company for other explorers.
Its ASX listed clients include gold plays Dark Horse (ASX:DHR) and Aus Tin Mining (ASX:ANW) as well as oil play Armour Energy (ASX:AJQ).
Smaller trades
A significant proportion of the remaining trades were from tech stocks. Just falling under $1 million was a $980,312 buy from Stephen Hagop Abolakian from the ASX’s only car subscription platform Collaborate (ASX:CL8) as part of a rights issue.
Buying on market were PointsBet’s (ASX:PBH) Brett Paton again – this time $498,799 – as well as Openpay’s (ASX:OPY) Michael Eidel who bought $117,240.
Both stocks have been high flying in 2020 and both are eyeing off further growth. In PointsBet’s case it is further expansion into the US whereas OpenPay is looking at sectors its BNPL peers haven’t entered just yet.
Meanwhile, one of the newer tech stocks on the ASX is furniture-focused ecommerce retail MyDeal (ASX:MYD). The stock has retreated since its impressive opening day but is still up from its IPO price.
MyDeal chair Paul Greenberg, who founded one time high-flying ecommerce retail DealsDirect, parted with $259,200 cash for MyDeal shares.
Buying in a dividend reinvestment plan was Stephen Smith of Brisbane-based aeroplane part maker PTB Group (ASX:PTB). Smith snapped up $142,025 in shares.
Sellers included Olivers Real Foods (ASX:OLI) boss Jason Gunn who parted with $255,000 in shares and Tyro Payments’ (ASX:TYR) Paul Rickard who sold $1.1 million.
The latter trade happened after the conversion of performance rights.
