Stay informed with free updates
Simply sign up to the Investments myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox.
In what could be interpreted as a vote of confidence, the board of animal genetics group Genus has been on something of a stock-buying spree this month. The purchases began on September 5, with chief executive Jorgen Kokke picking up almost 10,500 shares at an average price of $23.20 (£17.60) each, writes Jennifer Johnson.
Chair Iain Ferguson and his wife also got involved, purchasing 3,000 shares and 7,000 shares, respectively. Senior independent director Lesley Knox, who also serves on the boards of 3i Group and Legal & General, bought 2,800 shares at about £17.30 each the following day.
Though the stock is still down by 10 per cent this year, the directors’ deals provided a temporary reinvigoration after a prolonged stretch of low demand for meat and dairy products.
10%How much Genus’s shares have fallen this year
Genus’s closing share price on September 4 was £18.42 — the price climbed 10 per cent in the aftermath of the disclosures but were just 2 per cent higher at the time of writing.
The board didn’t exactly strike a bullish tone in its full-year results on September 5, stating that end market conditions are “stable to slowly improving”. The company remains particularly cautious on the sales outlook for China, where pig prices have been depressed for three years.
Some analysts think the company may now have reached the bottom of its downgrade cycle, suggesting the shares could start to rebound. “While we can understand why investors may want to wait for evidence before building a position, that approach will leave some upside on the table,” predicted Panmure Liberum’s Seb Jantet. The board’s recent dealings suggest they may be of a similar view.
Jet2’s Meeson cuts his stake again
Philip Meeson, the man who built Jet2 into the UK’s third-biggest airline, has cashed in another large chunk of shares, writes Michael Fahy.
Meeson’s transaction doesn’t appear in our table because he no longer holds a formal role at the company — he stepped down as executive chair a year ago. However, he remains the company’s biggest shareholder. Even after offloading 5mn shares (or 2.3 per cent of the company) through a secondary placing, the former stunt pilot retains a 14.8 per cent stake.
The placing was announced on September 11. No price was disclosed but at the closing price of 1,398p a share, the sale would have netted £69.9mn. Meeson previously made about £18.3mn from the sale of 1.25mn shares in April.
A statement issued by broker Jefferies said Meeson had sold the shares for “personal financial considerations alone”.
£69.9mnEstimate proceeds from partial sale of Philip Meeson’s stake based on September 11 Jet2 closing price
“Philip believes that Jet2, as a market leader in the holiday business, and with its firm order for 146 Airbus A321 aircraft, is ideally positioned to fully take advantage of a market with huge potential.” It added that Meeson expects “to remain a very substantial shareholder in Jet2 going forward”.
Jet2 has continued perform well even as peers report falling ticket yields — RBC Capital Markets cut its forecast for Ryanair’s 2025 net profit by 6 per cent after the low-cost airline’s chief executive Michael O’Leary said last week that second quarter fares were likely to be between 5 and 9 per cent lower year on year.
In a trading statement earlier this month, Jet2 acknowledged it was experiencing “softer flight-only net ticket yields” but said this had been offset by resilient demand from package holiday customers, up 8 per cent on last year. Package holiday customers now make up more than 70 per cent of Jet2’s passengers.
