Director Deeds: Credit Corp sale, Sigma buys and more

Credit Corp chairman Don McLay sold nearly $263,000 worth of shares on market on October 2, after selling nearly $411,000 also on market on September 27. In addition to chairing Credit Corp, McLay also chairs Registry Direct and Torres Industries. Credit Corp has been in and out of the money all year, but it spiked dramatically at the turn of this financial year and hit all-time highs. McLay sold when the stock was coming off again, first around $22.25, and then around $21.26 – it has been falling since. McLay is Credit Corp’s biggest insider, with 3.15 per cent of outstanding company shares to his name. He is the only Credit Corp director that has been trading in the company this year – both buying and selling.

Sigma Healthcare has seen several of its board members chip in for stock. Christine Bartlett, David Manuel, Kate Spargo, Brian Jamieson, David Bayes and Raymond Gunston all bought Sigma stock in early October, although most of the transactions counted for less than $10,000. The directors may be hoping those purchases counteract the recent loss of its Chemist Warehouse supply agreement. Sigma has struggled this financial year to gain back ground after a share price wipe at the end of June, now tracking around prices not seen since 2014.

Shortly after it slid in value, the boss of a leading metals and electronics recycling company dumped stock. Sims Metal Management CEO and managing director Alistair Field sold $100,000 worth of shares at $8.69 a pop on October 4.

Small cap RMA Global, the umbrella company of property site Rate My Agent, has taken money from two of its directors. David Williams spent just shy of $170,000 on RMA Global, and around $133,000 on Medical Developments International. Williams owns about 30 per cent of RMA and 15 per cent of Medical Developments. In addition, Phil Powell spent a little less than $20,000 on RMA Global, and a few thousand on Medical Developments about the same time.

Bega Cheese, which recently did a capital raising, has seen one of its directors also give back to the till. Richard Cross sold nearly $205,000 worth of shares on October 1, providing the reason “to assist in family succession of the dairy enterprise”. It was the same day short interest in the company was coming home to roost, accounting for 72.5 per cent of all shares sold on the day.

Goodbye shares, Helloworld. Or something like that. Together, Cinzia and Andrew Burnes sold a $27.5 million stake in Helloworld, as Qantas cut its stake to 15.4 per cent when selling $11 million worth of shares. All shares went for $5.50 a pop. Andrew Burnes said the sale would improve liquidity in the stock, as the top three shareholders previously held more than 70 per cent of the company. He still retains 10.4 million shares, while Cinzia retains around 10.1 million.

Mount Gibson Iron’s Paul Dougas bought two parcels of shares in the sunken iron ore producer, the first coming attached with a transaction value of $33,000, and the second, worth $64,000. Director interest has returned to the company, which is still a shell of its 2014 self, but has been tracking upwards for the better part of this year. The Dougas buy comes a couple of months after fellow director Hui Lee spent $12 million on the company in June.

Gateway Lifestyle Group, the owner of over 50s residential communities, saw a handful of its directors sell stock at the end of September. It was to be expected, considering Gateway is under takeover by Hometown at $2.25 per share, but there are still a few shareholders holding on, potentially some still hoping for a better offer (the offer period has now been extended to October 15). It has been a good year for shareholders, who saw the stock instantly spike from $1.83 on June 12.

Gearing up again, Nicholas Politis has returned to the driver’s seat at the AP Eagers share registry. We last reported that Politis spent $1.05 million on AP Eagers shares in May, and he actually hasn’t sold a share in the company for years. This transaction was a little smaller though, counting for only $36,000. Politis has been guzzling up shares there for some time, with the bulk of his wealth tied up in automotive – his AP Eagers holding is worth $394 million, or 36.13 per cent of all outstanding shares.

More airplay for Harvey Norman, Gerry Harvey makes the grade again for this instalment of Director Deeds. Harvey and his wife Katie Page took up another few hundred thousand shares each at the end of September, after Harvey had already gone on a conviction buying spree earlier in the month. Infamously one of the most shorted stocks on the ASX, short interest in Harvey Norman has come off a little since Harvey started his spree, with the stock falling out of the ‘top 10 most shorted’.

Specialty Fashion Group’s Michael Hardwick spent around $130,000 on shares at the end of September. Hardwick is currently the chief financial officer of Cotton On Group and has been the most active Speciality insider in recent years, with shareholders divided on his position at Speciality.

Shareholders in retail property fund Aventus approved a placement of nearly 30 million shares for Brett Blundy, worth a chunky $96 million. Blundy owns two-thirds of Aventus, CEO Darren Holland owning the remainder, of the company which leases homemaker centres to sprawling retailers. And elsewhere in the building materials space, a company that’s recently fallen off a cliff, Johns Lyng Group, scored $132,000 from director Scott Didier in exchange for 150,000 shares. Didier controls 26.12 per cent of outstanding shares.

Directors at its competitors bought shares earlier in the month, but Sonic Healthcare was spared the change. Neville Mitchell stepped up to the plate for the Sonic team on September 26 and spent more than $100,000 on shares.