Victorian Plumbing got a lift after its boss and several executives took advantage of a share price rout to snap up the stock at a discount.
Founder and chief executive Mark Radcliffe bought 3m shares in the bathroom products retailer for around £2.9m, or 97p each, after a bloody session on Thursday that saw the company lose around 40 per cent of its value in its worst day on the market.
Filings also showed that Neil Radcliffe, the company’s product director and Mark’s younger brother, purchased 529,267 shares for £497,511, equating to around 94p each.
Shoring up: Founder and chief executive Mark Radcliffe bought 3m shares in the bathroom products retailer for around £2.9m
Meanwhile, chairman Philip Bowcock grabbed 53,000 shares for £48,760, or 92p each, and senior independent director Damian Sanders acquired 25,933 at 96p for a price tag of just under £25,000.
Thursday’s share price plunge came after Victorian Plumbing warned of an uncertain outlook in the months ahead.
The Liverpool-based firm flagged that customers have spent less on big-ticket homeware items since the end of lockdown.
That had dented demand for the sinks, toilets and baths sold through its website. As a result, the group warned earnings in the year ahead were likely to be worse than those in 2021.
The crash wiped £120m off the value of the 58 per cent stake held by the Radcliffe family, which includes Mark, Neil and their parents Carole and George.
The shares jumped 8.9 per cent, or 8.1p, to 99,6p on the news of the boardroom share purchases, but they are still below the 155p they were trading at before the update and their listing price of 262p when the firm floated six months ago.
The FTSE 100 inched down 0.4 per cent, or 29.48 points, to 7291.78 while the FTSE250 dropped 1 per cent, or 220.33 points, to 22927.71. Signs that UK economic growth slowed in October, even before the Omicron variant appeared, took the wind out of the market’s sails.
Sentiment was also hit by US inflation figures, which jumped to 6.8 per cent in the year to November, their highest level since 1982.
Price rises were seen across the American economy including in food, petrol and used cars.
London’s tobacco giants heated up after US lawmakers scrapped plans for tax hikes on vaping products. The news sent shares in BAT up 2.5 per cent, or 68p, to 2759p while Imperial Brands rose 0.2 per cent, or 3p, to 1585.5p.
Blue-chip housebuilder Taylor Wimpey lost 0.9 per cent, or 1.55p, to 167.5p as it came under pressure from activist investor Elliott. The US hedge fund, which recently took a stake in the group, has demanded the firm find a new chief executive from outside the company following news on Wednesday that boss Peter Redfern will step down after 14 years in charge.
Mid-cap meat packer Hilton continued its buying spree, snapping up Dutch smoked salmon maker Foppen in a deal worth £77m (€90m).
To help fund the deal, the company raised £75m through a placing of around 6.6m new shares for 1,140p each, a 4.7 per cent discount to its last closing price before the fund raise was announced. The stock was down 1.5 per cent, or 18p, at 1178p.
Photo-Me, the operator of photo booths in airports and train stations, rose 11.4 per cent, or 6.6p, to 64.6p as it upgraded expectations after a rebound in its core markets.
The firm now expects that revenues for the year to the end of October will be ‘slightly ahead’ of its previous forecasts of £210m, while pre-tax profits will be at the upper end of its expected range of £25m to £30m.
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