Director dealings continue to be dominated by coach and bus operator National Express. Deputy chairman Jorge Cosmen has further increased his stake in National Express to nearly 20% as he continues to argue against the planned rights issue.
The latest £2.7m investment means that Cosmen has spent £4.4m on National Express shares in the past few days.
National Express plans a seven-for-three rights issue at 105p a share in order to raise £360m. This will substantially reduce group debt. However, shareholders need to agree to the large share issue involved. The EGM will be held on Friday.
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The Cosmen family has business interests in transport and it recently teamed up with private equity group CVC to launch a bid for National Express but then withdrew after negotiations.
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The subsequent rejection by the National Express management of an approach by Stagecoach upset Cosmen.
Cosmen would prefer National Express to investigate alternatives to a rights issue - including a bid. He claims to have the support of a further 14% of the company. National Express needs a majority of the votes cast in order to go ahead with the rights issue.
If Cosmen has secured the support of 34% of the share capital he will be in a strong position but he will probably need more shareholder backing if he is to vote down the rights issue.
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