Willem Mesdag, a director at the private equity group 3i, invested more than £280,000 in the company following well-received full-year results and benefited from a strong rise in the share price.

He took 100,000 shares at 281p a time. The shares closed just shy of 290p, meaning that Mesdag has made a profit of £9,000 already.

The rise in 3i's share price came in spite of the firm taking a £198m hit on its investment in Enterprise, the provider of government services, due to tough economic conditions in Britain. Gross return in the year to 31 March fell to £601m from £843m.

3i's chairman Sir Adrian Montague hailed a rise in the company's investments over the period.

"High quality new investment has always been central to future value growth for our shareholders," he said.

3i, which earlier this month announced an investment in camping equipment retailer Go Outdoors, described the environment as "generally improving but somewhat fragile."

"Significant regional differences are evident and it is a little early to assess the longer term effects of the geopolitical developments in the Middle East, the natural disaster in Japan, and increased energy and other commodity prices," the company said.

Top Director Buys

3i Group (III)
Director name: Mr Willem Mesdag
Amount purchased: 100,000 @ 281.00p
Value: £281,000

Norseman Gold (NGL)
Director name: Mr Vincent Pendal
Amount purchased: 200,000 @ 19.05p
Value: £38,100

Braemar Shipping Services (BMS)
Director name: Mr Alastair H Farley
Amount purchased: 10,471 @ 475.00p
Value: £49,737

JKX Oil & Gas (JKX)
Director name: Sir Ian Prosser
Amount purchased: 15,000 @ 292.59p
Value: £43,888

DCC (DCC)
Director name: Mr Leslie Van de Walle
Amount purchased: 670 @ € 22.43
Value: € 15,028


Top Director Sells
Beazley (BEZ)
Director name: Mr Nicholas Furlong
Amount sold: 367,442 @ 130.00p
Value: £477,675

Beazley (BEZ)
Director name: Mr Nicholas Furlong
Amount sold: 232,558 @ 130.00p
Value: £302,325

Caledon Resources (CDN)
Director name: Mr George Salamis
Amount sold: 266,000 @ 104.48p
Value: £277,917

Related share prices
3i Group (III) share price
Braemar Shipping Services (BMS) share price
DCC (DCC) share price
JKX Oil & Gas (JKX) share price
Caledon Resources (CDN) share price
Beazley (BEZ) share price
Norseman Gold (NGL) share price