ELECTRICAL connector firm Volex recently said that although trading conditions were challenging, it was making good progress with a restructuring programme.
The group’s sales and finance functions have been strengthened and production cost and operating expense savings are “being delivered as expected”.
The company is also looking to accelerate its move to a higher margin product portfolio.
“While there is still much to do we have made good progress,” the company said in an update last month.
Last week chief executive Ray Walsh demonstrated his faith in the company’s recovery by purchasing 32,286 shares at 97p each.
He now holds 250,000 shares in the group whose market value is less than half what it was a year ago.
• Bruno Müller, chief executive of Adriatic Oil, has purchased 160,000 shares at 1.3p each. Müller and his family members and connected parties now hold a combined interest in 58.6 million shares.
• Nick Perrin, finance director at veterinary services provider CVS, has purchased 3,000 shares at 189p per share.
The move has doubled his stake in the group.
• Robin Taylor, a non-executive director at Malaysian software company Fusionex, has bought 6,161 shares at 242p each.
He now holds 12,827 shares in the company.
• West African Minerals Corporation, an iron ore mining and exploration company, said Mercantile Holdings, a company owned by a trust under which director Stephen Dattels is a beneficiary, acquired 500,000 shares at 53.5p each.
He now holds more than 27 million shares.
• Property tycoon John Whittaker has boosted his stake in shopping centres group Intu following full- year results.
Deputy chairman Whittaker bought 60,000 shares at 328.35p.
• Ian Harrison, a non-executive director of Edinburgh-based aviation and newspaper distribution group John Menzies, has sold 100,000 shares at 766.00p each.
In its year-end results announced recently, the firm said its aviation division continued growth at expected levels despite the loss of some contracts due to airline failures and “headwinds” of weak sterling.