Connaught boss in £8.4m shares-for-cash transaction

The king-sized director deal of April was the £8.4m shares-for-cash transaction struck by Mark Tincknell, founder and executive chairman of Connaught.

Tincknell said he parted with 2.3 million of his shares "to satisfy pent-up institutional demand". Because of the time taken to strike the deal, when it came to signing, Tincknell found himself selling at 375p a share when Connaught's shares were trading at 400p.

Seven years ago, when Connaught floated on the Alternative Investment Market, shares were worth 150p.

Tincknell still holds 1.3m of his company shares. "I'm not bailing out," said the man who started the group 25 years ago. "I've got £6.5m-worth of shares left in Connaught."

Also trousering in a big-time fashion was Keller chairman John West. He found himself better off to the tune of £730,000 after selling 100,000 shares. His remaining holding stands at 1.2m shares, so should he find any future surge in the price of petrol leaves him running close to empty, he has £8m still sloshing about in his reserve tank.