Funds Hub
Money managers under the microscope
Directors buy at battered RAB
Directors’ dealings are widely seen as a sign that management are putting their money where their mouth is, so with RAB Capital’s shares just off a year low, shareholders may be encouraged by two small, recent purchases.
Director Adam Grant spent almost £12,200 on an initial holding of 92,400 shares at 13.203 pence each, while Amanda Moore, wife of non-exec Philip Moore, paid close to £5,000 for an initial stake of 38,674 shares at 12.8334 pence each.
Shareholders will be eager for every bit of good news they can get.
The shares, currently at 12.75 pence and around 100 pence at the end of 2007, dropped intraday to 11.5 pence on Thursday following the firm’s trading update on Wednesday, showing a fall in assets to just $1.26 bln. The firm also told Reuters of a hefty loss for its flagship Special Situations fund (the one that invested in Northern Rock) on Falkland Oil and Gas.
A painful lesson in diversification
As if RAB Special Situations’ woes weren’t enough already (investing in Northern Rock before its collapse, putting a high percentage into illiquid assets, 70 percent loss in 2008, locking up investors), the company told me yesterday of more bad news.
Explorer Falkland Oil and Gas, whose shares more than halved on July 12 when it revealed it hadn’t found any oil at the part-owned Toroa well, accounted for an amazing 24 percent of Special Situations’ portfolio before the fall (and presumably rather less now).
