Family purchase at BATS

A round-up of the biggest director deals today so far.

Dr Gerald Murphy's family interests have acquired 3,000 shares in British American Tobacco. Dr Murphy joined the board of British American Tobacco as a non-executive director on the 13 March. This is the first time he and his family interests have acquired any shares in the tobacco company since he became a director.

The shares were bought for 1959p each yesterday. That is above the closing price on the day. The total cost was £58,770.

Dr Murphy is a member of the Corporate Social Responsibility Committee, the Nomination Committee and the Remuneration Committee.

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Dr Murphy is an experienced executive having been chief executive of B&Q's owner Kingfisher for five years and previously held the same position at Carlton Communications (now ITV), logistics firm Exel and food producer Greencore.

His current day job is with private equity firm Blackstone Group. He represents Blackstone on the boards of United Biscuits, Kloeckner Pentaplast and Michaels Stores.

British American Tobacco said in October that it had performed well in the nine months to the end of September 2009, although total volume growth slowed.

Revenue for the nine months grew strongly in constant currency terms, driven by the continued pricing momentum and volume growth from the acquisitions made in the middle of last year, as well as the acquisition of Bentoel in Indonesia in June 2009.

Note: The latest apparent sale by Domino's Pizza founder Colin Halpern relates to the previously reported sale of shares in the recent tender offer. Due to an administrative error the family trust only tendered 19,835 shares instead of 190,453 shares. Domino's has acquired the difference (170,618 shares) at the tender price of 292p a share.

Another administrative error meant that chief executive Christopher Moore tendered 96,733 shares instead of 95,785 as initially announced. No change is being made to this situation.

Top Director Buys

British American Tobacco (BATS) Director name: Mr Gerard MurphyAmount purchased: 3,000 @ 1,959.00p Value: £58,770

Rotork (ROR) Director name: Mr Ian KingAmount purchased: 5,000 @ 1,170.00p Value: £58,500

Carclo (CAR) Director name: Mr Michael DerbyshireAmount purchased: 25,000 @ 128.50p Value: £32,125

Fidessa (FDSA) Director name: Mr Chris AspinwallAmount purchased: 2,602 @ 1,144.00p Value: £29,767

3i Infrastructure (3IN) Director name: Sir John CollinsAmount purchased: 19,215 @ 103.30p Value: £19,849

The Capital Pub Company (CPUB) Director name: Mr Clive WatsonAmount purchased: 25,000 @ 66.50p Value: £16,625

Carclo (CAR) Director name: Mr Bill TameAmount purchased: 10,000 @ 128.50p Value: £12,850

Top Director Sells

Domino's Pizza UK & IRL (DOM) Director name: Mr Colin HalpernAmount sold: 170,618 @ 292.00p Value: £498,205

Cranswick (CWK) Director name: Mr Bernard HoggarthAmount sold: 50,000 @ 750.41p Value: £375,205

Carclo (CAR) Director name: Mr Ian WilliamsonAmount sold: 240,400 @ 128.50p Value: £308,914

Carclo (CAR) Director name: Mr Robert James BrooksbankAmount sold: 205,550 @ 128.50p Value: £264,132

Sound Oil (SOU) Director name: Mr Jusuf RachmantioAmount sold: 6,250,000 @ 1.60p Value: £100,000