LONDON (ShareCast) - Paul Walsh, the former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Diageo who now serves on the board as an advisor, sold nearly four million pounds of shares in the drinks giant on Thursday, just one day after the Guinness maker impressed the market with a solid increase in annual net sales.

Walsh, who was succeeded by new frontman Ivan Menezes at the start of July, exercised options over 200,000 shares under Diageo’s Senior Executive Share Option Plan, then sold 190,000 of them at a price of 2,070p each for a total of £3.93m.

The 10,000 left over were added to his existing holding, which increased to 779,660 shares.

The former CEO is due to step down from the board in September and retire from the company next June. His role until then will be to transition critical partner and external relationships, including those essential to recent acquisitions, over to Menezes, the company said in May.

The company delivered a 5.0% increase in net sales in the year to June 30th from £10.76bn to £11.43bn, in line with expectations, driven by strength in the North American market as well as continued double-digit growth in emerging markets. The Western European market however remained “challenging”.




Top Director Buys

Panther Securities (PNS)
Director name: Mr Andrew Perloff
Amount purchased: 32,974 @ 297.50p
Value: £98,098

Blackrock Frontiers Investment Trust C Shs (BRFC)
Director name: Mr Audley W Twiston-Davies
Amount purchased: 50,000 @ 100.00p
Value: £50,000

Taylor Wimpey (TW.)
Director name: Baroness Margaret Ford
Amount purchased: 30,000 @ 106.00p
Value: £31,800

SEGRO (SGRO)
Director name: Mr Nigel Rich
Amount purchased: 10,000 @ 311.00p
Value: £31,100

Tate & Lyle (TATE)
Director name: Ms Anne Minto
Amount purchased: 3,600 @ 834.25p
Value: £30,033

Panther Securities (PNS)
Director name: Mr Brian Galan
Amount purchased: 9,263 @ 297.50p
Value: £27,557

Blackrock Frontiers Investment Trust C Shs (BRFC)
Director name: Miss Lynn Ruddick
Amount purchased: 25,000 @ 100.00p
Value: £25,000

Blackrock Frontiers Investment Trust C Shs (BRFC)
Director name: Mr John Murray
Amount purchased: 25,000 @ 100.00p
Value: £25,000

Taylor Wimpey (TW.)
Director name: Baroness Margaret Ford
Amount purchased: 15,000 @ 107.00p
Value: £16,050

Panther Securities (PNS)
Director name: Mr Simon Peters
Amount purchased: 5,056 @ 297.50p
Value: £15,042


Top Director Sells

Diageo (DGE)
Director name: Mr Paul S Walsh
Amount sold: 190,000 @ 2,070.00p
Value: £3,933,000

Lok'n Store Group (LOK)
Director name: Mr Ray Davies
Amount sold: 23,530 @ 136.00p
Value: £32,001

BC

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