Departing finance chief cuts Reckitt stake

Departing Reckitt Benckiser finance director Colin Day is cutting his shareholding in the household products supplier.

Day announced his departure in October but he had to wait for the third quarter figures to be announced before he could sell any shares.

The latest deals are the sale of 20,000 shares at 3,600p each and 10,000 shares at 3,610p each. They raised a total of £1.081m.

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The previous day Day sold 33,000 shares at 3,600.15p a share. The total amount raised by all these disposals is £2.27m.

Reckitt said Day is leaving to focus on his portfolio of non-executive positions and other career interests.

Last month, Day took up a non-executive directorship at engineering and project management group AMEC. He is also a non-executive director at the advertising group WPP and is a Fellow of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants.

"The board has decided that now is a good time to appoint a successor keen to focus on leading the company's finance function in support of the next stage of RB's growth," according to Reckitt.

Reckitt lifted third quarter profits by a fifth and has raised it full year targets thanks to strong sales growth in developing markets.

Revenues rose by 11% to £2.11bn in the three months to September 2010, with operating profits up by 21% to £564m. On a constant currency basis, sales rose by 6% and profits by 16%. For the year so far sales are up 9% at £6.2bn and profits by 19% to £1.53bn.

"For the full year, the group is now targeting net revenue growth of +6% and net income growth of +16% for the total business (both at constant exchange and excluding SSL), with exchange possibly adding around +2% to these numbers," according to the quarterly statement.

Reckitt says that it will compulsorily purchase the remaining shares in footcare group SSL, which it is buying for £2.5bn.

Top Director Buys

Air Partner (AIP) Director name: Mr Anthony (Tony) G MackAmount purchased: 50,000 @ 404.00p Value: £202,000

NXT (NTX) Director name: Mr James Lewis Amount purchased: 1,666,666 @ 3.00p Value: £50,000

Elektron (EKT) Director name: Mr Geoffrey SpinkAmount purchased: 75,000 @ 37.73p Value: £28,297

NXT (NTX) Director name: Mr Kate BarnesAmount purchased: 333,334 @ 3.00p Value: £10,000

Top Director Sells

Reckitt Benckiser Group (RB.) Director name: Mr Colin R DayAmount sold: 20,000 @ 3,600.00p Value: £720,000