One More Thing:It was "put your money where your mouth is" time in the Irish Life & Permanent (IL&P) boardroom this week.
The group's shares took a bit of a hammering last week after it said that property-based lending could be down €800 million this year. This combined with generally negative sentiment towards the banks served to blot out the otherwise positive tenor of the group's trading update.
Enter the IL&P directors, several of whom have gone into the market and bought stock led by chairman Gillian Bowler who bought 10,000 shares. Group chief executive Denis Casey bought a similar amount, while O2 Ireland supremo and non-executive director Danuta Gray made a more modest investment, 1,700 shares.
David Byrne, another non-executive and our man before last in Brussels, bought 1,000 while fellow non-exec and former Mercers executive Eamon Heffernan stumped up for 2,500 shares.
Also voting with his wallet was finance director Peter Fitzpatrick who spent €254,000 to exercise options on 23,310 shares.
No doubt they agree with Man Securities who take the view that the shares are cheap.
