New Homeserve director opens account

A non-executive director of FTSE 250 emergency repair group Homeserve has purchased his first lot of shares one month after joining the firm.

Ben Mingay, who joined the board at the start of January, bought himself 20,000 at 250.70p for a total of £50,140.

The purchase comes just days after the struggling firm slashed 200 jobs as it revealed that the total customer numbers for the full year ending March 31st are now expected by 8% lower than last year, worse than previous guidance of a 5% reduction. The firm said the cuts will help it to focus on marketing and create a smaller outbound telephony operation.

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Nevertheless, the company emphasised that it expects adjusted pre-tax profit to be within analysts' expectations of around £122-132m for the year.

The director now owns around 0.06% of the firm's shares.

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Value: £50,140

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