Having built a company worth almost £1.5billion, the management team of ITM Power could be forgiven for taking a few chips off the table, particularly with the shares close to an all-time high.
Boss Graham Cooley, chief financial officer Andy Allen, chief technology officer Simon Bourne and executive director Rachel Smith all exercised share options this week before selling stock worth £13.5million.
ITM’s release on Wednesday said: ‘The transactions have been undertaken for the purposes of wealth diversification.’
Excercising options: Top brass at ITM Power exercised share options this week before selling stock worth £13.5m
For those 28 people recently returned or being brought back from furlough, the news might jar a tad.
That said, ITM – up 11.5 per cent at 308p on Friday – has been one of AIM’s stand-out success stories despite being loss-making.
Its hydrogen technology is in huge demand with the order backlog standing at over £52million.
The shares, which hit a record high last week, had a mini wobble in the wake of the company’s trading update on Monday. ITM said it would post a £17.5million loss this financial year, in line with expectations.
The clean-tech specialist merits an honourable mention in the Proactive roll call ahead of AIM’s 25th anniversary next week.
The combined market capitalisation of the original 10 companies was £82million whereas now, the average market capitalisation of the 852 companies listed on AIM is just over £120million.
Indeed, 20 of AIM’s companies are billion pound-plus companies, with fashion firm Boohoo at the top of the greasy pole with a market capitalisation of £4.8billion, having recently toppled another online schmutter flogger, ASOS, which is worth a ‘mere’ £3.3billion.
Boohoo would sashay into the FTSE 100 were it eligible, with a market capitalisation that is around £400million higher than Sainsbury’s, while ASOS would have a fighting chance of sneaking in, as its market capitalisation is higher than six current index constituents, namely Whitbread, ITV, easyJet, Meggitt, Centrica and Carnival.
One former AIM luminary, Melrose Industries has already made it into the FTSE 100, although of course, it had to leave AIM to do so.
Melrose listed on AIM in 2003 with a market capitalisation of £13million; it is now worth £6.9billion and owns aerospace and automotive engineer, GKN – a company so venerable it was an original member of the FT 30-share index (the forerunner to the FTSE 100).
The junior market ended a tumultuous week down 4.3 per cent, mirroring the blood-letting losses seen on the FTSE 100.
As AIM heads towards its 25th birthday, Hornby is also nearing an impressive landmark – it is almost a 100 years since Frank Hornby unveiled the first clockwork tinplate locomotive. The share price rose to the occasion, chugging 11 per cent higher to 37.45p.
In the natural resources sector, oilfield services firm Star Phoenix Group sank 24 per cent to 2p after admitting it has still not received the outstanding payment of $1.53million from LandOcean Energy Services related to the sale of Range Resources Trinidad Limited, after extending the deadline several times.
Red Emperor Resources NL, meanwhile, slipped 14 per cent lower to 0.4p after the explorer decided not to exercise an option to acquire a 70 per cent operated interest in the offshore Perth Basin exploration permit, WA-481-P, in Australia.
On the up, Sosandar jumped 35 per cent to 11p after it reported that revenue and traffic for April and May soared 62 per cent and 98 per cent higher, respectively, despite the general downturn in the clothing market. The online fashion retailer said it was due to the large customer base gained through previous marketing investment.
Analytics as-a-service firm Actual Experience rocketed 74 per cent higher to 41p after completing most of its pivot to professional services and posted a 29 per cent increase in gross profit to £507,099 in the six months ended March 31.
Finally, marketing firm Be Heard Group climbed 45 per cent to 0.3p after announcing it was in discussions with MSQ Partners regarding a cash offer of 0.5p, a 92 per cent premium to the previous day’s closing price.
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