Premier Foods director bites again

Ian Deste, group sales director at struggling firm Premier Foods, has served himself up a helping of shares.

The director purchased 186,746 shares 5.20p just a few weeks after the firm's bankers agreed to defer the company's end-of-year loan covenant tests by three months, in a move which forms part of the company's discussions about longer term refinancing of the group's debt and confirms ongoing bank support for the business.

In October the company, which has lost 71% on its share price in the past year, issued a profits-warning after struggling with rising raw material costs hit third quarter results.

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Earlier this week, broker UBS said of the company, "the banks overriding priority must be to get their money back as quickly as possible and whilst this requires Premier to make profits/ generate cash, we are concerned that the interests of equity shareholders are now subordinate."

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