LONDON (ShareCast) - BT’s chief executive Ian Livingston spent nearly £100,000 lifting his stake in the telecoms giant today.

Livingston, 44, who was appointed to his current role in June, took 61,092 shares at 162.9p a time, and now has a personal holding of about 660,000 shares.

In previous months Livingstone had been selling shares in the company, offloading 27,472 at 232.8p a time in April and 20,707 at 172.3p a time earlier this month.

BT’s share price has nearly halved over the past year, with profits under pressure due to restructuring costs as it transforms from a fixed-line business to a software-driven communications services company.

Last month the company saw first quarter pre-tax profits fall 7% to £613m, even as revenue climbed 3% to £5.18bn.

“We are committed to delivering long term shareholder value and will continue to invest in the future growth of our business,” Livingston said as the company delivered its results.

“We have announced plans to invest £1.5bn to make fibre-based, super-fast broadband available to as many as 10 million homes in the UK by 2012, dependent upon an appropriate regulatory environment.”

Livingson was chief executive of BT Retail prior to his appointment as the head of the whole group. He served as BT Group’s finance director from April 2002 to February 2005.

Livingston, a Glaswegian, is also a non-executive director at the football club he supports, Celtic.


Top Director Buys

Games Workshop Group (GAW)
Director name: Mr Tom Kirby
Amount purchased: 100,000 @ 170.00p
Value: £170,000

BT Group (BT.A)
Director name: Mr Ian Livingston
Amount purchased: 61,092 @ 162.90p
Value: £99,519

3i Infrastructure (3IN)
Director name: Mr Paul Waller
Amount purchased: 27,966 @ 118.00p
Value: £33,000

British Assets Trust (BSET)
Director name: Mr Ian M Russell
Amount purchased: 20,000 @ 111.50p
Value: £22,300

ContentFilm (CFL)
Director name: Mr Kerry McCluggage
Amount purchased: 200,000 @ 7.90p
Value: £15,800

New Century AIM VCT (NCA)
Director name: Mr Michael David Barnard
Amount purchased: 15,500 @ 85.40p
Value: £13,237


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Amount sold: 20,000 @ 329.44p
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SDL International (SDL)
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Value: £525,000

SDL International (SDL)
Director name: Mr Alastair Gordon
Amount sold: 100,000 @ 350.00p
Value: £350,000

Meggitt (MGGT)
Director name: Mr Philip Ernest Green
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Value: £170,958

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