Domino's Pizza directors have offloaded shares ahead of a tender offer by the company. The directors have sold at 310p a share whereas the tender offer is at 317p a share. Domino's intends to buy back 6m shares for £19m.
The directors have sold nearly as many shares as Domino's is tendering for. All the disposals happened after the tender was announced.
Founder and non-executive vice chairman Colin Halpern has been a consistent seller for more than a year. The latest share sale is by a related trust where his children are beneficiaries.
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Halpern sold 2.5m shares at 210p each in February and 500,000 shares at 205p each in May. Those sales raised £6.275m. In August 2008 he sold 2.3m shares at 180p each which raised £4.14m.
Halpern and related trusts retain nearly 5.2m shares, which is 3.18% of the company.
Executive chairman Stephen Hemsley, chief executive Christopher Moore and non-executive Nigel Wray have also been reducing their stakes. Hemsley retains a 2.57% stake, Moore owns 1.6% and Wray remains the company's biggest shareholder with a 15.9% shareholding.
Shareholders can tender some or all of their shares but only 6m will be acquired. Excess applications will be scaled back if the tender proves popular. The latest tender will increase the amount spent by Domino's on share buy backs to more than £50m.
Management says that trading remains strong at the fast food retailer.
Charles Stanley maintains its target price of 365p a share but downgrades from buy to add. The broker forecasts 2009 profits of £28.2m. Forecasts were upgraded after a recent trading statement.
The share disposals did not hit the share price which ended the day 5.8p higher at 332.8p.
Top Director Buys
Beazley Group (BEZ) Director name: Mr Padraic O'ConnorAmount purchased: 30,000 @ 107.81p Value: £32,343
Resolution (RSL) Director name: Mr Gerhard RoggemannAmount purchased: 30,000 @ 96.21p Value: £28,863
Top Director Sells
Domino's Pizza UK & IRL (DOM) Director name: Mr Colin HalpernAmount sold: 2,308,975 @ 310.00p Value: £7,157,822
Domino's Pizza UK & IRL (DOM) Director name: Mr Stephen HemsleyAmount sold: 1,845,789 @ 310.00p Value: £5,721,946
Domino's Pizza UK & IRL (DOM) Director name: Mr Nigel WrayAmount sold: 1,046,458 @ 310.00p Value: £3,244,020
Domino's Pizza UK & IRL (DOM) Director name: Mr Christopher MooreAmount sold: 553,927 @ 310.00p Value: £1,717,174
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