Directors' deals: Berkeley boss Pidgeley gains £13m-worth of shares

Shares bought

Eleven directors spent a total of £290,000 during April with the largest single cheque coming from Bellway chairman Howard Dawe with a spend of £54,000.

Most of the 11 investments were relatively small sums but after several months of completely closed wallets and no expressions of confidence in companies’ future prospects, at least some construction leaders’ latest actions suggest that things won’t get any worse.

Making up the top three spenders’ podium this month were Roy Dantzic (chairman of ISG) and Tim Ross (non-executive director at Lavendon) who handed over £48,000 and £30,000 respectively.

Sale post-exercise

While construction and house builders’ shares crashed during the past 12 months, leaving shareholders angry and frustrated, that issue has not stopped a string of companies throwing handsome bonus packages at their various leaders who were at the helm over the last year.

Last month 27 directors logged details of share deals with some individuals selling everything they had been handed by way of a thank-you for their performance, and others only selling a portion of their haul to cover the subsequent tax implications, holding onto the balance for sale at a future date.

Tony Pidgley, the charismatic managing director of Berkeley, was handed 2.1m shares on 16 April worth a total of £21m. Pidgley sold 880,000 of the total for £8m to meet tax liabilities, leaving him with £13m-worth for free and still sitting in his own name.

Berkeley’s finance director Robert Perrins tapped into a similar seam of solid gold. Handed 800,000 company shares on the same date, worth £7.8m, he flogged off £3.2m-worth to keep the taxman happy, resulting in a stash of shares still sitting in his name with a current value of close on £5m.

Two more of the Berkeley’s executives were also in clover. After selling to nullify tax liabilities, Anthony Carey’s remaining gift runs to a value of £3.8m while Gregory Fry’s present adds £1.9m to his cash worth.

At Aggreko, the company decided to hand Rupert Soames, chief executive, 139,000 free shares. He sold 98,000 of this total for £540,000 and retained the balance.

The name of Carillion director Roger Robinson features in the list for the second consecutive month. Now operating on a slash-and-burn policy, Robinson’s latest grant of 48,000 were quickly put up for sale and fetched £121,000.

Shares sold

In addition to sales post-exercise deals listed above, Berkeley’s Pidgley thought it timely to sell 800,000 shares in his wife’s name for £2.4m. Shares in the name of the wife of Berkeley’s finance director Perrins fetched a similar sum.

A third chunky cheque headed towards Henry Boot’s executive Douglas Greaves. After parting with 100,000 of his 400,000 share tally, he pocketed £70,000.