- Marketing firm has shown robust growth of late
- Acquisitions likely to be on the agenda this year
- Safestore C-suite pair lock away more stock
Quick out of the blocks is how you might describe Tim Dyson, the chief executive of billion-pound marketing and PR firm Next Fifteen Communications (NFC:AIM). Just four months ago shares in the London-based company were trading at 755p, before an end of year rally.
Now that the stock's run seems to have ended Dyson is on to the blower to his broker to sell a huge slug of shares; 300,000 at £10.50 a pop netting him a cool £3.15 million.
The sale comes just days following a trading update that demonstrated strong growth over the past year (revenue up 55%, 20% underlying) and commentary that was impressively optimistic against the UK economic backcloth.
ACQUISITIONS IN MIND
With £20 million of net cash, Next Fifteen looks well-placed to take advantage of strugglers in the communications services space to bolster exposure and scale, so look out for acquisition news through 2023.
In October 2022, a move for rival M&C Saatchi (SAA:AIM) fell apart after its major shareholders, including serial IT entrepreneur Vin Murria, refused what was on the table.
Dyson still owns more than 4.7 million shares in the company.
| Biggest director deals this week, by value | ||
| Buys | ||
| Who | Value | |
| Safestore | Federic Veccioli (CEO) | £117,975 |
| Andy Jones (CFO) | £84,049 | |
| Begbies Traynor | Nicholas Taylor (CFO) | £88,882 |
| Audioboom | Michael Tobin (Ch) | £9,802 |
| Sells | ||
| Netcall | Henrik Bang (CEO) | *£1,799,379 |
| James Ormondroyd CFO) | *£519,394 | |
| Michael Neville (NED) | £351,750 | |
| Michael Jackson (Ch) | *£315,000 | |
| Begbies Traynor | Nicholas Taylor (CFO) | *£100,800 |
| £88,822 | ||
| Source: Shares | * = sale following exercise | *£47,685 |
Other large seller over the past week include Netcall (NET:AIM) non-executive Michael Neville. The part-time director pulled the trigger on his second large stock sale in a week, banking £351,750 in a deal on the 30 January 2023 in a repeat of his 335,000 share sale on 24 Jan, which netted him the same amount.
CEO Henrik Bang, chairman Michael Jackson and CFO James Ormondroyd also banked big following the exercise of options, selling a combined £2.63 million worth of shares after options were exercised.
C-SUITE AT SAFESTORE OPTIMISTIC
Major stock buyers over the past week were headlined by FTSE 250 storage provider Safestore (SAFE). The £2.3 billion Hertfordshire-based company saw deals worth £117,975 and £84.049 pushed through by CEO Federic Vecchioli, and Andy Jones, the finance boss, respectively at £10.079.
The Safestore C-suite pair are obviously confident of the firm's prospects even in the face of the shares solid progress since September 2022, having rallied about 25%. At the current £10.55, Veccioli and Jones clearly believe there is scope to get back to previous £14 peaks in the months ahead, and perhaps surpass that to strike all-time highs.
