Entain shares have fallen by half over the past year due to regulatory hurdles, including a near-doubling of UK remote gaming duty to 40 per cent in April. New chief financial officer Michael Snape, who succeeded Rob Wood this spring, has begun building his stake, purchasing 51,815 shares at 482p each for a total of £249,992 ten days before Brazil provisionally banned online gambling. The ban, which affects 5 per cent of Entain’s online revenue, caused profit warnings, pushing earnings closer to the lower end of the £910mn–£960mn EBITDA guidance. Snape, now holding 64,634 shares, is meeting regulatory requirements to hold 350 per cent of his £595,000 salary in stock, with five years to comply. The purchase appears driven by obligation rather than opportunism.
Other directors’ deals include Torbjörn Magnusson at Aberdeen, Tom Handley at boohoo, and multiple Centrica executives buying shares. Coca-Cola HBC insiders, including Panagiota Kalogeraki and Zoran Bogdanovic, made significant purchases. GSK saw multiple insider buys, while Vodafone and St. James’s Place also recorded transactions. Sales were led by IMI’s Jun Hu and Lion Finance’s Zurab Kokosadze.
Source: Financial Times Companies · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing