LONDON (ShareCast) - Mondi finance director Paul Hollingworth has bought 30,000 shares in the paper and packaging supplier at 433.5p. On 1 August he bought 50,000 shares at 425.5p each. The latest purchase takes his holding to 80,000 shares.

The shares purchased will all count towards the interim dividend of 7.3 euro cents (4.93p) a share that Mondi announced with its interim figures on 1 August.

Mondi is a multinational paper and packaging business which was spun out of Anglo American in July 2007. Its main operations are in Western Europe, Russia and South Africa. Mondi has a dual listed company structure comprising Mondi plc, which is quoted in London, and Mondi ltd, which is quoted on the JSE.

Revenues grew by 7% to €3.1bn in the six months to June 2007. The underlying pre-tax profit increased by 62% to €203m. There was a major turnaround in the fortunes of the South African operations of the business paper division and improved trading in the packaging division.

Management warned that rising raw material costs and the weak US dollar will hit the second half performance but the business is still expected to make positive progress in the second half.


Top Director Buys

Lancashire Holdings (LRE)
Director name: Mr Neil William McConachie
Amount purchased: 148,025 @ 250.32p
Value: £370,536

Mondi (MNDI)
Director name: Mr Paul Hollingworth
Amount purchased: 30,000 @ 433.50p
Value: £130,050

Bankers Petroleum (BNK)
Director name: Mr Ford Nicholson
Amount purchased: 200,000 @ 19.70p
Value: £39,400

Avocet Mining (AVM)
Director name: Mr Mike Norris
Amount purchased: 53,921 @ 135.00p
Value: £72,793

Royal & Sun Alliance Insurance Group (RSA)
Director name: Mr John H Maxwell
Amount purchased: 35,926 @ 138.20p
Value: £49,650

Bankers Petroleum (BNK)
Director name: Mr Wolf Regener
Amount purchased: 100,000 @ 20.64p
Value: £20,640

DataCash Group (DATA)
Director name: Mr Ashley Head
Amount purchased: 39,834 @ 100.80p
Value: £40,153

Pearson (PSON)
Director name: Mr Glen Moreno
Amount purchased: 5,000 @ 791.00p
Value: £39,550

Braemar Shipping Services (BMS)
Director name: Mr Alan Marsh
Amount purchased: 8,000 @ 389.93p
Value: £31,194

Royal & Sun Alliance Insurance Group (RSA)
Director name: Ms Clare Salmon
Amount purchased: 21,187 @ 138.90p
Value: £29,429


Top Director Sells

3i Group (III)
Director name: Mr Philip Edward Yea
Amount sold: 76,203 @ 1,070.00p
Value: £815,372

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