Christopher Woodhouse, the Debenhams finance director, has sold £7.24m-worth of shares in the department store chain. He sold 8.68m shares at an average price of about 83½p between October 22 and 28 and is left with 3.15m, equivalent to 0.24% of the group. His last trading activity in the shares was in December 2008, when he bought 229,869 shares at 23.33p each.

Woodhouse has been finance director of Debenhams since it refloated in May 2006, having occupied the same position from December 2003, when the company was taken private. The sale came at a time when US private equity group Texas Pacific sold its remaining 9.4% stake to Och-Ziff Management for about £100m. Och-Ziff acquired an additional 10m shares when it bought the TPG stake, taking it to 11.52%.

Debenhams, which has 144 department stores in the UK and Ireland, raised £323m in a placing and open offer at 80p a share in June. The shares have rallied strongly in recent months as the company has recovered from the turmoil that gripped the global economy last year. On October 22, the group posted a rise in pre-tax profits of £120.8m in the year to August 29, against £105.9m over the same period the previous year.

DANIEL DAYAN, who was appointed a non-executive director of Stobart Group in July, spent just over £50,000 on shares following the release of the transport outfit’s interim figures the previous week. He bought 40,000 at 125.46p a time.

Dayan held no shares before this purchase. Stobart, which operates road-haulage lorries and has rail, port and air operations, reported an increase in pre-tax profits from £11m to £12.4m in the six months to August of this year. Revenues improved from £199m to £218m.

“Our half-year results demonstrate stability and performance against a background of economic recession,” said chief executive Andrew Tinkler.

“Volumes are strengthening with contracts recently signed with Tesco, Nestlé and the launch of rail services such as the distribution from Valencia to the United Kingdom of temperature-controlled fresh produce,” he added.

Stobart said it would pay an interim dividend of 2p, which compares with 2.7p at the half-year stage last year.

Dayan, 45, is the chief executive of the fabrics producer Fiberweb. He is a chartered mechanical engineer and previously worked for ICI, the chemicals group.

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

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