Northumbrian chairman buys after bid talks end

Northumbrian Water chairman Sir Derek Wanless has more than doubled his stake in the water utility four days after a bid approach was ended.

Last Friday, the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan Board said it does not intend to bid for Northumbrian but it is retaining its 26.7% stake. There was talk of a bid worth £1.7bn, against the current market value of £1.4bn.

Sir Derek, who has been Northumbrian's chairman since July 2006, spent £96,000 on increasing his stake in the company from 30,000 shares to 65,000 shares. The buying price was 274.33p a share.

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Non-executive director Alex Scott-Barrett bought 10,000 shares at 271.6p a share, thereby doubling his holding to 20,000 shares.

Durham-based Northumbrian provides water and sewerage services to 2.6m people in the north east of England and 1.8m people in the South East through Essex & Suffolk Water. Northumbrian has agreed the price limits set by Ofwat.

Nortumbrian recently said that its revenues were going to be flat this year. A restructuring charge of £5m will be taken in the year to March 2010. This should yield savings of £3m a year.

Heidi Mottram has been appointed as the new chief executive of the company.

Net debt is expected to be £2.26bn at the end of March 2010.

Full year figures will be announced on 2 June.

Top Director Buys

Northumbrian Water Group(NWG) Director name: Mr Peter Antony Ruxton Amount purchased: 35,000 @ 274.33pValue: £96,016

Northumbrian Water Group(NWG) Director name: Mr Alex Scott-BarrettAmount purchased: 10,000 @ 271.60pValue: £27,160

Central China Goldfields (GGG) Director name: Mr Peter Antony Ruxton Amount purchased: 650,000 @ 3.08p Value: £20,020

Top Director Sells

Fuller Smith and Turner (FSTA) Director name: Mr M J TurnerAmount sold: 18,112 @ 515.00p Value: £93,277