John Menzies bosses take delivery of shares

Bosses at John Menzies have been buying large stakes in the aviation and distribution company recently.

Non-executive director Ian Harrison bought 30,000 shares at 80.7p a time today, paying a total of £24,210, while finance boss Paul Dollman took 14,242 shares at 78p a time.

Following the transactions, Harrison owns about 2.6m shares, or 4.26% of the firm while, Dollman who yesterday bought 19,002 shares at 86p a time, has just over 60,000.

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Earlier in the week Craig Smyth, boss of the firm's aviation arm, bought 30,000 shares at 106p a time, taking his shareholding to 54,810 shares.

While Edinburgh-based John Menzies now specialises in handling cargo and distributing newspapers and magazines, it is best known for the newsagent chain it operated until 1998, when it was sold to WH Smith.

Earlier this month John Menzies announced that it was cutting 600 jobs to cope with the downturn in flight schedules due to the current economic slowdown that prompted a profit warning in October.

The profit warning related to its aviation arm, with the distribution business still performing in line with expectations.

John Menzies share price has nose-dived over the past half year. Back in March, Smyth and Dollman bought 6,090 and 7,018 shares respectively, both paying 534p a time.

Top Director Buys

Value: £3,197,135

Value: £106,250

Value: £103,180

Value: £80,000

Value: £24,210

Value: £23,500

Value: £20,770

Value: £20,430

Value: £8,104

Value: £16,342

Top Director Sells

Value: £1,210,000

Value: £1,210,000

Value: £450,000