LONDON (ShareCast) - Chairman of Tesco Bank Andrew Higginson, who recently announced his plans to check-out from the supermarket giant next year, has sold £1.4m worth of his shares in the firm.

54-year-old Higginson, who was formerly group finance and strategy director for the firm, is the man behind Tesco's lucrative move into banking and is widely credited with playing a major role in turning the company into the world's third largest supermarket chain.

Higginson is due to retire from the board in September 2012 and has previously said that by next year Tesco will have completed the creation of the Tesco bank as a standalone entity, "and that seems an appropriate moment to hand over, and move on to the next phase of my career."

According to broker Credit Suisse, Tesco is currently leading the way in the so called "price war" between the major Supermarket chains.

Tesco has been running its "big price drop" programme for seven weeks, with rival supermarkets struggling to match the reductions.

Last month, Tesco, which has lost 3.79% on its share price over the past year, reported an 8.8% growth in sales for the half year the end of August, while sales in Asia are up almost 12% at £5.6bn.

Top Director Buys

Cape (CIU)
Director name: Mr Martin K May
Amount purchased: 60,000 @ 341.78p
Value: £205,068

Ferrum Crescent Ltd Ord NPV (DI) (FCR)
Director name: Mr Edward F G Nealon
Amount purchased: 2,000,000 @ 5.25p
Value: £105,000

Admiral Group (ADM)
Director name: Mr Kevin Chidwick
Amount purchased: 9,736 @ 836.00p
Value: £81,393

Admiral Group (ADM)
Director name: Mr Kevin Chidwick
Amount purchased: 8,000 @ 829.00p
Value: £66,320

Xchanging (XCH)
Director name: Mr Ken Lever
Amount purchased: 61,650 @ 70.00p
Value: £43,155

Sainsbury (J) (SBRY)
Director name: Ms Mary Harris
Amount purchased: 5,000 @ 300.00p
Value: £15,000


Top Director Sells

Debenhams (DEB)
Director name: Mr Chris Woodhouse
Amount sold: 3,000,000 @ 63.79p
Value: £1,913,700

Tesco (TSCO)
Director name: Mr Andrew Higginson
Amount sold: 350,000 @ 403.43p
Value: £1,412,005

Misys (MSY)
Director name: Mr Mike Lawrie
Amount sold: 279,828 @ 284.90p
Value: £797,230

Hays (HAS)
Director name: Mr Alistair R Cox
Amount sold: 24,403 @ 74.06p
Value: £18,073

NR

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