Small cap director buying and selling has started to pick up a little in the third week of the new year.

The largest acquisition of shares amounted to a hefty $7.7 million and was done by a director of bottled water seller Refresh Group (ASX:RGP).

Koji Yoshihara last week picked up an extra 128.9 million shares at 6c each through Eneco Investment, which now owns 51 per cent of Refresh Group.

The shares were issued as part of a two-part placement announced in October last year. Eneco injected a total of $8.2m into the company.

The smallest trade of the week, meanwhile, amounted to $1147. Geoff Albers, executive chairman of oil and gas explorer Octanex (ASX:OXX), bought another 125,444 shares on-market.

Jumbo Interactive (ASX:JIN) boss Mike Veverka is again exercising options and selling shares on-market.

Last week he converted 150,000 options to shares at a cost of $525,000 and then sold 253,241 shares for $1.9m.

Mr Veverka made some large purchases in June and September in the internet lottery company by exercising options, and started selling in September.

Tamawood (ASX:TWD) founder Lev Mizikovsky is continuing his recent buying spree in 2019, sinking a further $43,439 on-market to acquire an extra 12,168 shares.

He picked up $442,216 worth of shares in the home builder in December in three separate transactions.

A director of iron ore explorer Havilah Resources (ASX:HAV) has done some more on-market buying — in the same week the company received a grilling from the ASX over why two of its directors sold their “top-up” shares off-market.

Martin Janes bought 200,000 shares for $33,363 in four separate transactions done between January 10 and 16. He didn’t previously own any shares in Havilah.

Takeover advantage

Chris Baker, a director of gold explorer Explaurum (ASX:EXU), is taking full advantage of the takeover that’s in play by Ramelius Resources (ASX:RMS).

After months of railing against the hostile takeover bid, Explaurum finally recommended shareholders accept the better offer in late December.

Mr Baker converted 1.2 million options to shares at a strike price of 7c each — a 48 per cent discount to what Ramelius is offering to pay for Explaurum’s shares. All up it cost him just under $85k.

Ramelius’ cash and scrip offer is for 2c per share and one Ramelius share for every four Explaurum shares held, which at the time the new offer was announced valued Explaurum shares at 13.4c each.

Plus-$100k transactions 

Besides the multi-million-dollar buys mentioned earlier, there were only a handful of trades worth over $100,000.

Brendan O’Kane and Brian Mitchell spent $150,000 each on swapping options for shares in digital marketer OtherLevels (ASX:OVL) at a cost of 4c each.

SmartPay (ASX:SMP) director Bill Pulver sunk a further $147,873 into the EFTPOS provider to add 822,135 more shares to his portfolio.

Scout Security (ASX:SCT) director John Strong pocketed $122,386 from the sale of his shares after shareholders voted against his re-election at the AGM in late November last year.

Simon Tolhurst, the chairman of iCollege (ASX:ICT), gained about $112,100 worth of shares in the private educator in lieu of director fees. He also picked up a further 2 million shares at a cost of $100,000 in a recent placement.