Director Trades: Who’s selling and who’s buying?

Link copied to
clipboard

Here’s our weekly look at which ASX small cap directors bought or sold their own stock (August 20-24):

BUYERS

Two the biggest buyers of their own stock are Anthony Leibowitz at Ensurance and Michael Ruane at Reward Minerals.

Last week, Mr Liebowitz bought another 750,000 Ensurance shares (ASX:ENA), meaning he owns 14.45 per cent of the company.

At $28, 500 it was at the smaller end of his usual purchases. He has bought into Ensurance nine times since being appointed chair in May.

Mr Ruane sank another $1.5 million into potash play Reward (ASX:RWD) partly via a rights issue and on market trades, giving him 33 per cent of the company. He has made some 73 trades in Reward over the years.

Mr Leibowitz told Stockhead he picks up stock whenever he can as he thinks Ensurance is “the next QBE”.

>> Scroll down for a table of last week’s small cap director trades

He says the company has had a tumultuous three years with less-than-stellar management. Now they’ve tidied it up and are working with a strategy that will deliver “huge upside”.

Mr Leibowitz’s track record includes Pilbara Minerals (ASX:PLS) and recruiter Chandler Macleod, which was sold in 2015 for $290 million to Japanese group Recruit.

Reward Minerals

Reward’s Michael Ruane also has form among ASX companies: he was a chairman of Helloworld’s (ASX:HLO) predecessor, floated Altura Mining (ASX:AJM) and Millennium Minerals (ASX:MOY), and is still a substantial shareholder in Intermin Resources (ASX:IRC).

Reward, with its Lake Disappointment potash project, is “way too cheap” so he buys when he can, he says.

He is very optimistic where others clearly have not been — he says they’ve “copped a fair bit in the marketplace” lately.

“This is a cracker of a project we’ve got and at the end of the day I’m going to make ten million bucks,” he told Stockhead.

“I’m sure there will be bigger players interested in the not so distant future.”

Thorney Opportunities (ASX:TOP) magnate Alex Waislitz spent $753,000 on market for 1.12 million shares. He now owns 29 per cent of that particular fund.

PolyNovo (ASX:PNV) chair David Williams bought in again. Mr Williams is another big hitter who is heavily involved in ASX newcomer RMA Global (ASX:RMA) and is one of Sienna Diagnostics’ (ASX:SDX) newest substantial shareholders.

SELLERS

The biggest deal last week was Nigel Garrard selling his Orora (ASX:ORA) shares for $6.4 million.

He exercised 1.1 million options which cost $1.4 million and converted 739,500 share rights, which cost nothing.

He then sold the lot, making a tidy profit and still having 6.2 million rights and options left over.

Alliance Aviation (ASX:AQZ) directors are taking advantage of a 20 per cent share price surge in early August.

Over two days the stock popped up to $2.38, a high achieved only once before, in 2012.

Chairman Stephen Padgett and managing director Scott McMillan chose to sell.

Mr Padgett knocked out a $909,000 profit and Mr McMillan made just under $640,000.

With Qantas posting a profit last week as well, 2018 could well be a rare year when it’s good to own an airline.

Atrum Coal (ASX:ATU) directors have been fairly active buyers this year — but none more so than Charles Fear.

He made his seventh trade since May last week. Sometimes he’s buying shares, sometimes it’s options, a couple of times it was as part of a capital raising.

Now he owns 6.24 million shares and 8 million options.

SORRY

Kingsrose Mining (ASX:KRM) had to apologise for its director Grant Mills trading in a blackout period in mid-August.

It said he got verbal, but not written clearance, and says they aren’t going to do anything about it bar remind directors that they aren’t allowed to trade in blackout periods.

“Kingsrose Mining acknowledges that there has a been a breach of its Securities Trading Policy,” the company said in an ASX announcement relesed on August 20.

“After considering the matter, the Board (other than Mr Mills and Mr McIllree) has decided that KRM will not take disciplinary or remedial action in relation to the breach and regards the breach as minor and technical.”

AssembleBay (ASX:ASY), which is becoming a vanadium company after failing as an on-demand IKEA erector, failed to get its option expiry notices in on time, as did Acacia Coal (ASX:AJC).

Contango Asset Management (ASX:CGA) blamed “administrative oversight” for a 3Y that should’ve gone out in March.

Here’s a table of last week’s small cap director trades:

Scroll or swipe for full table. Click headings to sort

share

• 
• 
• 
• 

Link copied to
clipboard

SUBSCRIBE

Get the latest Stockhead news delivered free to your inbox.

Name*

Email*

Hidden

Email Lists

Morning Update

Lunch Update

Market Close Update

Weekend Update

It's free. Unsubscribe whenever you want.

By proceeding, you confirm you understand that we handle personal information in accordance with our Privacy Policy.