Cable and Wireless bosses keep buying

Directors at Cable and Wireless have been busy continuing to increase their stakes in the telecommunications company on the back of strong full year results.

Chairman Richard Lapthorne spent more than £900,000 on shares.

He bought 700,000 shares at just under 133p a time, taking his holding to 4.5m.

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His purchase came on the same day Tim Pennington, a director, bought just over 300,000 shares at 132.4p a time.

The latest dealings are not the only purchases Lapthorne and Pennington have made in recent times.

The previous week, on the same day the firm delivered strong results for the year to 31 March, Lapthorne bought 187,000 shares at 141.5p a time and Pennington took 284,000 at 139.8p.

On May 21, C&W said profit before tax for the 12 months ended 31 March rose to £422m from £308m a year ago, although exceptional items of £189m mean the total figure was down to £233m from £267m.

Revenue grew by 16% to £3.6bn.

Lapthorne became chairman of C&W in January 2003, having been chairman of healthcare group Amersham (now called GE Healthcare) and finance director and vice chairman of British Aerospace.

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