Connaught chairman buys

Connaught chairman Sir Roy Gardner is buying shares in the social housing repairs business following the resignations of its chief executive and finance director.

Connaught shocked the market with its recent profit warning. Mark Tincknell has stepped down as chief executive because of ill-health and finance director Stephen Hill will leave in October. Ian Carlisle has taken on the role of acting chief executive.

Sir Roy has invested nearly £56,000 in acquiring 50,000 shares at 111.6p each.

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He invested nearly £500,000 just after his appointment in May, when he bought 158,808 shares at 314.8p a share. His stake is now 208,808 shares.

Non-executive directors Tim Ross and Robert Alcock yesterday acquired 20,000 shares each. Ross paid 111.2p a share while Alcock paid 112.5p a share.

Sir Roy is an ex-chief executive of Centrica and the current chairman of Compass.

Despite recent setbacks, the board believes that the business continues to perform well and the outlook for the group remains robust. The group has completed the initial analysis of its business review programme and has identified an achievable net benefit of £25m in annual cost savings from fiscal 2012.

Sir Roy has instigated an independent review of the company's accounting policy for mobilisation costs. KBC Peel Hunt estimates that mobilisation costs in 2010 will be around £9m

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