LONDON (ShareCast) - Telecity's Chief Executive Officer has bought shares in the company in a bid to show his confidence in the company's new Finnish acquisition, which on Monday proved decidedly unpopular, with shares dropping almost nine per cent.

Michael Tobin made the modest purchase of 2,000 at 843.60p. The £16,872 purchase takes his stake in the company to 616,000 shares, equal to around 0.31% of the issued share capital.

The company announced that it has acquired Finnish company Academica for €28m in cash. Academica operates data centres in Helsinki, and has 1MW of operational capacity and a secured capacity pipeline of 3MW. The purchase is a strategic move to establish a leading position in this growing market, the firm said.

However, analyst James Goodman at Investec has commented that the acquisition was "very expensive". That said, he did add that, "the business has an expansion plan to quadruple the capacity to 4MW which would clearly lessen the price, but would depend on the incremental capital expenditure required".

In a statement released on Monday, Tobin, said: "I am pleased with Telecity Group's progress to date in 2012. Notwithstanding the continuing barriers to entry in all major locations, we have delivered major capacity expansion projects across Europe to underpin future growth."

The announcement came as the firm reported a period of "robust" trading and confirmed that earnings for the full year will be in line with market estimates.

Consensus estimates for the full year ending December 31st are for pre-tax profits of £81.66m on revenues of £284.35m. With estimated earnings per share of 30.76p, it is on a forward price earnings ratio of 29.7 for 2012, dropping to 23.6 in 2013.


Top Director Buys

Whitbread (WTB)
Director name: Mr Richard Baker
Amount purchased: 4,094 @ 2,357.00p
Value: £96,496

Whitbread (WTB)
Director name: Ms Susan Mary Hooper
Amount purchased: 800 @ 2,412.90p
Value: £19,303

Telecity Group (TCY)
Director name: Mr Michael Tobin
Amount purchased: 2,000 @ 843.60p
Value: £16,872


Top Director Sells

M. P. Evans Group (MPE)
Director name: Mr James Derek Shaw
Amount sold: 5,000 @ 498.00p
Value: £24,900

M. P. Evans Group (MPE)
Director name: Mr James Derek Shaw
Amount sold: 3,793 @ 495.00p
Value: £18,775

Arden Partners (ARDN)
Director name: Mr Jonathan B Keeling
Amount sold: 25,000 @ 50.00p
Value: £12,500

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