The Deputy Chairman of Intu (formerly Capital Shopping Centres), John Whittaker, has boosted his stake in the group by 60,000 shares two weeks after the company posted a stable set of full year results.

Whittaker, who joined the board after selling the well-known Trafford Centre shopping mall to Capital Shopping Centres in exchange for roughly a quarter stake in the group, purchased the shares at 328.25p a go, totalling £196,950.

The company said at the end of February that its profit for 2012 came in at £159m, significantly higher than the £34m seen the previous year, mainly as a result of valuation and transaction-related items.

At the year-end, the net asset value (NAV) per share was 392p (2011: 391p), the debt to assets ration was 49.5% (2011: 48.5%), and the market value of investment properties was £7,073m (2011: £6,960m).

Alongside its results, the group also announced that it is placing up to 86m new ordinary shares at 342.9p per share, equal to up to 9.9% of the company's issued share capital, to raise funds for the acquisition of Midsummer Place Shopping Centre in Milton Keynes. The acquisition of Midsummer Place, which has an annual footfall of over 17m and current vacancy rate of 3.0%, will be made for a consideration is £250.50m.

Whittaker's total number of ordinary shares now stands at 189.87m, equal to 19.89% of the issued share capital.


Top Director Buys

Intu Properties (INTU)
Director name: Mr John Whittaker
Amount purchased: 60,000 @ 328.25p
Value: £196,950

SABMiller (SAB)
Director name: Mr Mark Armour
Amount purchased: 3,000 @ 3,470.50p
Value: £104,115

PureCircle Ltd. (DI) (PURE)
Director name: Mr William Mitchell
Amount purchased: 40,000 @ 255.00p
Value: £102,000

African Barrick Gold (ABG)
Director name: Mr Greg Hawkins
Amount purchased: 20,000 @ 235.75p
Value: £47,150

Wood Group (John) (WG.)
Director name: Ms Mary Shafer-Malicki
Amount purchased: 2,000 @ 874.81p
Value: £17,496

Electrocomponents (ECM)
Director name: Ms Karen Guerra
Amount purchased: 7,525 @ 265.30p
Value: £19,964

Quarto Group Inc. (QRT)
Director name: Mr Marcus Leaver
Amount purchased: 10,000 @ 148.50p
Value: £14,850


Top Director Sells

Diageo (DGE)
Director name: Mr Ivan Menezes
Amount sold: 227,664 @ 2,979.25p
Value: £6,782,680

Standard Chartered (STAN)
Director name: Mr Stefano Paolo Bertamini
Amount sold: 43,901 @ 1,805.28p
Value: £792,536

Mandarin Oriental International (Singapore) (MDO)
Director name: Mr Michael Hobson
Amount sold: 279,000 @ $1.66
Value: $462,442

Rolls-Royce Holdings (RR.)
Director name: Mr Mark Morris
Amount sold: 3,953 @ 1,048.00p
Value: £41,427

NR

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