LONDON (ShareCast) - Michael Sharp, the man who took over retail chain Debenhams last year, has underlined his faith in the company with the purchase of shares 100,000 shares.

The £74,000 purchase saw the Chief Executive Officer invest his money at 74.32p a go, increasing his interest in the company to over 5.95m shares.

Sharp took over the helm over the company at an extremely tough time, when consumers were being squeezed from all sides and shares in the company had lost more than a quarter of their value.

He has long served the company and is now in his 15th year with the High Street chain, and another 15 with other retail heavyweights.

In April the company unveiled half-year profits ahead of market forecasts, leading the board to say it is confident it will meet its full-year expectations.

Headline profit before tax in the 26 weeks to March 3rd eased 0.5% to £128.5m from £129.2m the year before, but was ahead of what analysts tracking the stock had been expecting; the range of forecasts ran from £124m to £125m.

Revenue rose 1.3% to £1,238.3m from £1,222.3m the year before. As reported at the beginning of April, the group's gross transaction value rose 1.4% to £1,483.6m from £1,463.0m the previous year. Like-for-like (LFL) sales growth (excluding value added tax) was confirmed at 0.3%.


Top Director Buys

F&C Asset Management (FCAM)
Director name: Mr Edward Bramson
Amount purchased: 145,084 @ 71.23p
Value: £103,343

Debenhams (DEB)
Director name: Mr Michael Sharp
Amount purchased: 100,000 @ 74.32p
Value: £74,320

Lamprell (LAM)
Director name: Mr Colin R Goodall
Amount purchased: 44,155 @ 112.10p
Value: £49,498

Anglo American (AAL)
Director name: Mr Jack Thompson
Amount purchased: 1,000 @ 2,075.01p
Value: £20,750

Zetar (ZTR)
Director name: Mr Ian Blackburn
Amount purchased: 10,250 @ 192.00p
Value: £19,680

Bahamas Petroleum Co (BPC)
Director name: Mr Adrian Collins
Amount purchased: 200,000 @ 7.12p
Value: £14,240

Dechra Pharmaceuticals (DPH)
Director name: Dr Chris Richards
Amount purchased: 2,200 @ 462.88p
Value: £10,183


Top Director Sells

Pearson (PSON)
Director name: Ms Marjorie Scardino
Amount sold: 36,558 @ 1,143.10p
Value: £417,894

Pearson (PSON)
Director name: Mr Robin Freestone
Amount sold: 3,029 @ 1,143.10p
Value: £34,624

Pearson (PSON)
Director name: Mr Will Ethridge
Amount sold: 1,439 @ 1,143.10p
Value: £16,449

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