THE finance director of Morrisons has backed himself and his management colleagues after investing £100,000 in shares in the retailer on the day it announced figures which disappointed the markets.
Its share price had falled more than 5% in early trading from Wednesday’s close of 176p after the Bradford-based supermarket group said its first-half revenues had fallen by 5.1% and pre-tax profits were down 47%.
Trevor Strain, the third part of the former Tesco triumverate now running Morrisons alongside chairman Andrew Higginson and chief executive David Potts, bought 58,453 shares at 169.8p. He now owns 97,794 shares, worth £166,000 at last night’s close.
Morrisons share price closed last night down 2.8% at 170.9p.
The retailer’s share price is of particular importance as it languishes near the bottom of the FTSE 100 list and in the last two quarterly reviews has been close to dropping out.
It endured a torrid 13-month period on the markets up to October 2014, when its share price halved, and it has so far been unable to bounce back.
Yesterday it announced it is to close 11 supermarkets, a day after it completed the sale of its M Local chain of convenience stores for £25m.
