Mark Slade buys 200,000 LCG shares for about $114,000, to hold about 0.5% of the company.
It wasn’t a very large investment in terms of total cost, but with new London Capital Group CEO Mark Slade reporting that he was buying shares, investors on the LSE followed and bid up LCG’s share price by 6% on Thursday.
London Capital Group shares have gone on somewhat of a wide roller coaster ride the past three months
(source: Google Finance):
By the letters in the share price chart above:
A. LCG shares soar by more than 50% in mid February, after LCG confirms it has ‘received preliminary approaches’ from Cantor Fitzgerald, Gain Capital and City Index.
B. LCG shares drift back down by more than 10%, after the company reports disappointing 2012 results, and that longtime CEO Simon Denham would be stepping down, to be replaced by Mark Slade. Slade was formerly MD of Refco Overseas — Refco was a major backer of FXCM before Refco went bankrupt in the mid-2000’s, almost taking FXCM down with it.
C. LCG shares continue to drift down another 10%, as nothing happens with the previously-revealed M&A talks.
D. LCG shares collapse and drop 19% and then 18% on consecutive days in early March, as LCG announced it was no longer in active talks to be taken over. The shares ended up more than 20% below where they were before the M&A rumors surfaced (in A. above).
E. LCG shares have drifted back up, by almost 40%, since late March, culminating with yesterday’s 6% rise when it was disclosed that CEO Slade had bout 200,000 shares.
We would note that at the current £0.38 per share, LCG is basically trading at cash value — the company’s market value is just £20 million, while LCG has no long term debt, and about £20 million of cash in the bank.
Stay tuned to LeapRate for more on the situation…
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