Bosses, M2 on parallel paths

Vaughan Bowen, the M2 Telecommunications Group strongman, has collected nearly $25 million from share sales in the past couple of years.

But who would begrudge him that sort of moolah? After all, the scrip was fetching under 50¢ in 2009 and now Bowen is taking a little bit off the table at $5.45 a share.

Elsewhere in the M2 boardroom, chairman Craig Farrow also sold a few shares at $5.55 in what has been a very, very profitable exercise for all concerned.

According to whatever measure took your fancy, M2 increased earnings by anywhere between 47 per cent and 99 per cent in the December half.

The group has been on the takeover trail since then and the acquisitions are tipped to help "underlying" earnings a share increase about 20 per cent for the 2014 financial year. Bowen retains a useful $28 million-plus of stock, while Farrow has nearly $3 million of paper.

Elsewhere in the scrip appreciation department, Caltex managing director Julian Segal took some fruit off the tree following a strong run-up in the share price over the past few years.

Richard Collins, a non-executive director of carsales.com, sold some shares, joining chairman Walter Pisciotta as a recent seller.

The overall scorecard registered $1.8 million to $14.9 million in favour of those doing some selling.

On the funds manager and former investment banking fronts, Mark Johnson, one-time Macquarie Bank heavy, opened his account at Conto Resources.

He was appointed executive chairman of the junior gold explorer last month; the company is valued at $3.4 million.

David Slack, former Portfolio Partners heavy, was also in penny territory when he bought 2 million shares in Advanced Braking Technology at 1.6¢ apiece.

The group's main market for its braking system is the mining sector, and it lost $800,000 for the December half-year and was in negative cash-flow territory.