SHARES in Johnston Press – owners of The Scotsman, Scotland on Sunday and the Edinburgh Evening News – yesterday rose by 5p to 130p after it was reported that company senior executives had bought a significant amount of its stock.
The Times on Tuesday reported that five directors bought nearly 300,000 shares the day before, which had pushed the share price up by one per cent, to 125p, after it had earlier dipped by four per cent.
On Tuesday, chief executive, Tim Bowdler, was reported saying that he could not guarantee that the Edinburgh-headquartered company could keep up with the conditions attached to its overdraft in the event of a sharp downturn in the economy.
The newspaper publisher’s shares fell sharply on Monday – dropping ten per cent to 123p, their lowest level in more than a decade, as the market worried that the company may not be able to meet the conditions attached to its banking covenants.
“I’m not making any forecast as to what will happen to market conditions,” Bowdler told The Times, explaining that advertising was booked only a few days or weeks ahead.
“There’s plenty of speculation about what we are dealing with, speculation that we could see something more serious than an advertising downturn.”
