GUD turbulence no deterrent to new chief as he stocks up

Jonathan Ling took the managing director's reins at GUD Holdings in August, had a look around and has now put a useful bit of money into the stock.

The Sunbeam appliance and industrial storage group's scrip recently encountered turbulence, following the news that earnings might drop 20 per cent.

The shares fell from $6.37 to $5.15 but have since recovered somewhat.

The other day Ling paid $5.76 a share - about half what the shares were fetching three years ago.

On the selling side, a battalion of RCG Corp directors, led by chairman Ivan Hammerschlag, sold about one third of their holdings to institutions, including some to BT Investment.

Scrip in The Athlete's Foot group halved last year, has since much more than doubled, and RCG is predicting earnings-a-share growth of 10 per cent this year.

Elsewhere, a transaction by Lemarne director Paul Delosa showed the dramatic fall in the company's value since coming under the influence of the Silman family and Darren Olney-Fraser.

Delosa paid 15.6¢, compared with the 73¢ collected by former directors - headed by Brian Noxon - when they handed effective control to the Silmans last year. In August this year, Olney-Fraser was appointed chairman. Within six weeks, Lemarne put $750,000 into a note issued by Olney-Fraser's loss-incurring Mariner Corporation.

Facing election as a Lemarne director next Friday, this week he refused a shareholder's routine request for a copy of the share register, claiming it did not comply with the Corporations Act. Lemarne has not lodged accounts with the stock exchange since 2012. Elsewhere, Penny Maclagan collected $5 million from the sale of Computershare paper.

The overall scorecard registered $4 million to $46 million in favour of sellers.

The reporter owns LMC shares.