{"id":103538,"date":"2026-08-14T14:41:08","date_gmt":"2026-08-14T14:41:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/103538\/"},"modified":"2026-08-14T14:41:08","modified_gmt":"2026-08-14T14:41:08","slug":"british-american-and-ip-group-big-director-share-deals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/103538\/","title":{"rendered":"British American and IP Group: Big director share deals"},"content":{"rendered":"

British American Tobacco\u2019s (BATS)<\/a> shares were knocked in June after the FTSE 100 group warned that its full-year sales and profits could disappoint as the fall in global cigarette volumes accelerates.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The tobacco major said at the time that sales and profit growth could skew towards the \u201clower end\u201d of its 3 to 5 per cent and 4 to 6 per cent target ranges, respectively. The shares slipped further in July after BATS revised its estimates for the traditional cigarette market\u2019s decline. The group is now expecting a 3 per cent contraction for 2026, up from the 2.5 per cent it initially forecast in February.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Yet despite efforts to hasten its strategic shift towards alternative sources of nicotine through so-called \u2018smokeless\u2019 products such as oral pouches and vapes, traditional cigarettes still make up around four-fifths of BATS\u2019 revenues.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Some analysts have bought into the group\u2019s transformation towards a \u2018smokeless future\u2019, but others aren\u2019t so convinced. RBC Capital Markets is forecasting full-year operating profit growth of 3.6 per cent, below management\u2019s guidance for the lower end of the 4 to 6 per cent range.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This is because newer sources of nicotine come with much lower margins, the bank said. As BATS gradually increases its exposure to these product categories and sales volumes for traditional cigarettes fall, RBC expects this dynamic to prove an eventual drag on long-term profitability.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But this did not appear to bother BATS\u2019 newest non-executive director, Matthew Wright, who joined the board in November. Wright acquired \u00a3247,500-worth of stock in an astutely timed purchase last week, his first as a director. EW\u00a0<\/p>\n

BATS:LSE<\/p>\n

British American Tobacco P.l.c<\/p>\n

20 days<\/p>\n

The week after IP Group\u2019s (IPO)<\/a> biggest shareholder walked away from a potential takeover of the venture capital investor, the FTSE 250 player\u2019s top directors took the opportunity to buy shares on the cheap.\u00a0<\/p>\n

On 27 July, railways pension schemes asset manager Railpen confirmed it wouldn\u2019t make an offer for IP Group because \u201cthe terms of a mutually acceptable proposal\u201d couldn\u2019t be agreed. University science and technology spinouts specialist IP Group turned down a 71.3p-a-share proposal on 20 July, which came after the rejection of a 69.4p-a-share approach in June.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Railpen holds more than an 18 per cent stake in IP Group and manages around \u00a336bn of assets.\u00a0<\/p>\n

New IP Group chair Michael Queen, who replaced Sir Douglas Flint in June, spent \u00a3132,000 on 4 August buying his first shares in the business. Queen, who is also chair of Coller Capital, is the former chief executive of private equity firm 3i (III). Meanwhile, chief executive Greg Smith picked up \u00a331,000-worth of shares the next day.\u00a0<\/p>\n

While the shares are up more than a fifth this year, the purchases (which were settled between 66p and 68p per share) were made at a major discount to the group\u2019s latest published net asset value (NAV) per share of 110p on 31 December 2025. That result was up 13 per cent on the year before, driven by the recognition on the balance sheet of expected future royalty income from its Metsera investment.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Metsera, a weight-loss drug start-up, was bought by Pfizer (US:PFE) last November in a deal worth up to $10bn (\u00a37.4bn). IP Group owns and licenses certain intellectual property rights around these obesity drug programmes.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In response to Railpen\u2019s decision to walk away, IP Group\u2019s board said it \u201chas strong conviction in IP Group\u2019s strategy and the opportunity to realise substantial value from its high-quality portfolio\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Analysts at joint house broker Berenberg have pencilled in NAV per share growth of 8 per cent in both 2026 and 2027. They argued that fundraisings by investments such as novel cancer therapy business Artios and autonomous vehicle technology business Oxa shows \u201cthere is still considerable value in IP Group\u2019s portfolio, despite the softer early-stage funding landscape\u201d. CA<\/p>\n

BuysCompanyDirector\/PDMRDatePrice (p)Aggregate value (\u00a3)British American TobaccoMatthew Wright3-Aug4,500247,500Cadence MineralsKiran Morzaria (ce)5-Aug4.432,290Canal+ S.A.\u00a0Philippe B\u00e9nacin \u260531-Jul223.955,970ConvatecTobias Hestler6-Aug225.8112,900Delta Gold TechnologiesJamie Tosh31 Jul-3 Aug12224,400EnergeanAndreas Persianis4-Aug755.637,775Franchise BrandsNeil Miller (cfo)3-Aug145.350,838IP GroupMichael Queen (ch)4-Aug66.2132,400IP GroupGreg Smith (ce)5-Aug6830,587QinetiQSteve Mogford6-Aug545.849,622Rentokil InitialMike Duffy (ce) * \u2020 \u260531-Jul1,775.7186,450Rentokil InitialTh\u00e9r\u00e8se Esperdy * \u2020 \u260531-Jul1,744.2370,023Rentokil InitialLeanne Sheraton31-Jul358.735,875Sirius Real EstateAndrew Coombs (ce)3-Aug100.333,109Titon HoldingsJamie Brooke (ch)5-Aug8026,400TracsisDavid Frost (ce)3-Aug350.524,994Zegona CommunicationsTim Pennington5-Aug15.2100,138SellsCompanyDirector\/PDMRDatePrice (p)Aggregate value (\u00a3)Alfa Financial SoftwareChristopher Sullivan3-Aug165329,920BAE SystemsTania Gandamihardja (PDMR)31-Jul2,087.51,419,586BarclaysMatt Fitzwater (PDMR)6-Aug529.235,896BarclaysDenny Nealon (PDMR)6-Aug521.181,432BarclaysAnna Cross (fd)7-Aug521.12,405,335ChemringSarah Ellard3-Aug602.2346,840ChemringMichael Ord4-Aug611.81,223,694HammersonAlex Dunn (PDMR)31-Jul378.4204,344IQEBami Bastani4-Aug45.8229,150NextLord Wolfson (ce)5-6 Aug15,70226,693,893NextJeremy Stakol (PDMR)5-Aug15,6614,569,294ShellSinead Gorman (cfo)31-Jul3,368.71,010,597Sirius Real EstateAndrew Coombs (ce)5-Aug102510,000Standard CharteredBill Winters (ce)4-Aug2,220.86,662,400TescoChristine Heffernan (PDMR)5-Aug481.71,526,989UnileverHeiko Schipper (PDMR) \u260531-Aug416.658,319VodafoneAlberto Ripepi (PDMR)30-Aug121.71,216,960VodafoneShameel Joosub (PDMR)7-Aug119.5890,275WhitbreadMark Anderson3-Aug2,552127,600*Deal conducted by spouse \/ family \/ close associate. \u2020 Purchase of American Depositary Shares 5:1 ratio. \u2605 Translated from $\/\u20ac.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"British American Tobacco\u2019s (BATS) shares were knocked in June after the FTSE 100 group warned that its full-year…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":103539,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[20745],"tags":[20030,22681,703,702],"class_list":["post-103538","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-british-american-tobacco","tag-british-american-tobacco","tag-director-deals","tag-standard-article","tag-stocks-shares"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@UnitedKingdom\/117094388999063284","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103538","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=103538"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103538\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/103539"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=103538"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=103538"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=103538"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}