Frasers chairman in embarrassing share purchase blunder
Mike Ashley’s retail group, which was in danger of losing its hard-won reputation for poor governance and tin-eared gaffes, has been forced to reveal an embarrassing share purchase by its chairman days before its results are to be published.
David Daly spent £11,110 on Frasers Group shares on Monday despite the company being in a closed period – the time between the completion of a listed company’s financial results and them being released to the stock market.
Frasers owns Sports Direct, House of Fraser, Flannels, USC and Lillywhites, and is bidding to add the gym chain DW Sports to its portfolio. Its annual results are due to be published tomorrow.
The closed period is aimed at preventing an individual potentially profiting from any inside information.
The FTSE-250 group said the shares were “purchased in error” and were sold minutes later.
In a statement, Frasers said: “The company has robust procedures in place before PDMRs can trade in shares which were accidentally not followed in this instance.
“The issue was rectified as soon as it came to the company’s attention and the shares were sold within 15 minutes of their purchase. A small profit was made on the sale which David Daly has donated to charity.”
Frasers reported a 14% rise in half-year sales to £2bn last October. However, it delayed its annual results earlier this month because its new auditors needed more time.
