Paul Atherly, the Managing Director of China-focused gas exploration company Leyshon Resources, announced Friday that he last week purchased 1.8m shares.

Atherly, who has been a director of the company since May 2004, bought the shares at 14.91p a time, costing him £268,380.

The transaction was made on January 25th, the same day the group reported the success of its most recent drilling operations.

The company stated that its wholly-owned subsidiary, Pacific Asia Petroleum (PAPL), had completed the drilling and wire line logging of two wells known as "ZJS5" and "ZJS6". This was in addition to flow testing of ZJS5 on its newly acquired Zijinshan Gas Project on the eastern fringe of the Ordos Gas Basin in Central China.

A flow test without stimulation was conducted on two potential pay zones in ZJS5 which confirmed that fracking would be required to produce commercial gas flows.

Speaking at the time Atherley said: "We are very encouraged by the positive progress we have made to date which has exceeded our initial expectations for the Zijinshan Gas Project.

"We have made the decision to accelerate the 2013 programme with plans to drill and test six wells, capture 300 kilometres of seismic data with the aim of delineating a resource by the end of the year."

Atherly now holds 31.33m shares, equal to 12.56% of the issued share capital.



Top Director Buys

Leyshon Resources Ltd. (LRL)
Director name: Mr Paul Campbell Atherley
Amount purchased: 1,800,000 @ 14.91p
Value: £268,380

Mitchells & Butlers (MAB)
Director name: Mr Alistair Darby
Amount purchased: 31,623 @ 317.73p
Value: £100,476

Brown (N.) Group (BWNG)
Director name: Mr Andrew Higginson
Amount purchased: 25,500 @ 368.00p
Value: £93,840

Fidelity Special Values (FSV)
Director name: Mr Benjamin Thomson
Amount purchased: 9,000 @ 651.75p
Value: £58,658

ACM Shipping Group (ACMG)
Director name: Mr Mark Tracey
Amount purchased: 20,425 @ 146.50p
Value: £29,923

Betfair Group (BET)
Director name: Mrs Fru Hazlitt
Amount purchased: 2,500 @ 662.00p
Value: £16,550


Top Director Sells

Carnival (CCL)
Director name: Mr Modesto Maidique
Amount sold: 3,000 @ 2,456.99p
Value: £73,710

Related share prices
Brown (N.) Group (BWNG) share price
Fidelity Special Values (FSV) share price
Mitchells & Butlers (MAB) share price
Carnival (CCL) share price
Leyshon Resources Ltd. (LRL) share price
Betfair Group (BET) share price