MAN Group’s nonexecutive deputy chairman, Stanley Fink, has cashed in £27m of shares in the world’s largest listed hedge-fund company.

Fink, who stood down as chief executive officer last March, sold 5m shares at 544.33p each, to reduce his holding to 14.5m shares, two weeks after he transferred 2.35m Man shares into a charitable trust. In November last year he donated 2.58m shares to charity. Kevin Davis, chief executive officer of Man Global, the US brokerage that demerged from Man this year, sold 669,375 shares at just under 547p each to net £3.66m. He still holds 19.5m Man shares, representing 1.14% of the issued share capital.

Early last month Man demonstrated its resilience in volatile markets by posting a 21% rise in pretax profit to $820m (£397m) in the six months to the end of September 2006. Funds under management increased to an estimated $70 billion at the end of October from $61.7 billion at the end of March. “Continued good product performance has generated significant performance-fee income for October and the outlook for sales remains good,” said Peter Clarke, chief executive.

NEXT’S finance director, David Keens, has topped up his holding after the clothing retailer’s shares retreated from October’s £22 level. He bought 10,000 shares at 1711p to increase his holding to 145,963, or 0.07% of the company. The share slide started in early November after a trading statement showed combined sales of Next Retail and Next Directory for the 14-week period to November 3 rose by only 0.4%.

Directors have in-depth knowledge of their businesses, so it can pay to track their moves. Every week Digitallook.com reveals the bosses who have bought or sold big stakes.

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