Vedanta chief buys again

Vedanta chairman Anil Agarwal has tightened his grip on the Indian copper miner, buying £2.8m worth of shares.

He took 152,753 at 1,842p a time through his holding company Volcan Investments Limited and now has 163.5m, which is about 61.7% of the company.

At the price he paid for each share in his latest purchase, his holding is worth more than £3bn.

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His latest bout of buying activity comes after Vedanta moved into the oil business, taking a 51% stake in Scottish oil company Cairn Energy's Indian business for $8.5bn (£5.4bn).

Vedanta justified its move out of the mining sector by saying that it is 'a diversified natural resources group with its primary operations in India.'

Agarwal said the purchase would make Vedanta 'a natural resources champion' in India.

'Cairn India's Rajasthan asset is world class in terms of scale and cost, delivering strong and growing cash flow,' he said.

'The company has a proven management team and very significant further resource potential.'

Vedanta's share price has been helped by a sharp improvement in copper prices since the economic downturn of 2008-2009.

Last month it posted a 123.5% rise in earnings in the first quarter from the same period the previous year.

Non-executive directors at the laundry and workwear group Davis Service Group have been adding to their stakes in the company.

David Lowden, Iain Ferguson and Andrew Wood, who all joined the board on March 1, spent about £75,000, £57,000 and £50,000 respectively, an announcement today revealed.

On Friday the same day Davis said posted a slight increase in profits in the half year to June 30, Lowden, a former chief executive of the market researcher Taylor Nelson Sofres, took 20,000 shares at just over 377p a time and Wood, who in April retired as finance director of aircraft services group BBA Aviation, took 13,000 at 374.3p a go.

Ferguson, who used to be executive chairman of food giant Unilever's Birds Eye Walls division, today took 15,000 shares at 378.6p a time.

Davis's revenue in the Nordic region rose 4% to £171.9m and adjusted operating profit by 10% to £25.3m. while sales increased by 1% in the UK & Ireland to £195.6m and profit grew 6% to £17.4m. But revenue was down 2% on the Continent at £121m and profit fell slightly to £15.4m.

Davis operates Sunlight, a supplier of textile rental and laundering services and a provider of clinical products and services to the healthcare industry, in the UK and Ireland. On the continent, it operates the Berendsen brand.