- On The Beach founder invests nearly £2 million in shares
- Non-executive buys one million Purplebricks shares
- Purplebricks shares up more than 25% during last month
Founder and chief executive Simon Cooper bought 1.53m shares in online retailer of beach holidays On The Beach (OTB) on 19 August.
Cooper acquired 1,530.141 shares through Hawksford Trustees Jersey for 129.54p each.
The purchase, valued at £1.98 million, increased his shareholding to just under 5.64%.
Copper’s acquisition follows an earlier purchase of 37,749 shares by Adam Henson, director of corporate development on 17 August at £1.31 per share.
First-half results (24 May), saw half-year revenues to 31 March increase to £52.9 million, up from £4.4 million this time last year.
Revenue as agent of £39.7 million was £5.3 million lower than 2019 levels because of subdued consumer demand until restrictions were fully lifted.
However the Manchester-headquartered group managed to reduce its pre-tax loss by £14.6 million to £7 million.
On The Beach does expect to start making profits again through the second half, helped by the business entering the premium travel market and sales starting to climb to pre-pandemic levels following the lifting of travel restrictions.
The shares have rallied by 11% over the last month, but year-to-date are down by 56%.
CHAIR BUYS ONE MILLION PURPLEBRICK SHARES
Paul Pindar non-executive chairman of on-line estate agency portal Purplebricks (PURP:AIM) bought one million shares at a price of 17.45p on 24 August.
This purchase has a nominal value of £174,549 and following the transaction Pindar owns 5.42% of the share capital.
The shares have performed poorly over the last year falling by 69%.
Last December shares slumped 20% after the company postponed the release of its first-half results after discovering a ‘process issue’ regarding tenants deposits.
Under the 2007 Housing Act, Purplebricks is legally obliged to send tenants a letter within 30 days of their deposit being paid to confirm that their monies have been ring-fenced and are protected if the landlord goes bankrupt.
However, it is believed that since the company began operating in 2012 it has failed to send any of its tenants the legally required confirmation.
More recently the market was unimpressed by full year results (2August) for the year ended 30 April, that saw revenue and gross profit fall by 23% and 27% respectively.
However group chief executive office Helena Marston is attempting to improve performance with a series of new initiatives.
‘We have already taken decisive action. We have completed a substantial cost-reduction programme, retrained all our field agents to raise standards and improve conversion, increased our prices and removed the Money Back Guarantee, adopted a more targeted sales and marketing plan, and dramatically overhauled our processes and procedures.’
‘We are also assessing additional revenue streams including our new mortgage proposition which we expect to launch by the end of this financial year.’ The shares have rallied 25% over the last month.
