B&M’s new boss Tjeerd Jegen has picked up shares in the group worth more than £500k in a show of support for the struggling discount chain.
In an update to the London Stock Exchange this morning, B&M revealed Jegen purchased almost 200,000 shares in five separate transactions last week, with prices ranging from 261p to 270p each.
Jegen, who has held leadership positions at Ahold Delhaize, Metro and Tesco over a 25-year career, took after as CEO at B&M from interim boss Mike Schmidt yesterday (16 June) after being appointed in May.
B&M has not yet revealed details for the new chief executive’s pay packet, but said it was consistent with the remuneration policy approved at the AGM in July 2024 and would be disclosed in the 2025 annual report.
Shares in B&M have been under intense pressure over the past year as the discounter struggled with declining sales and shrinking profits. The stock has almost halved in value since last June, with a profits warning in February leading to a sharp fall in price to a low of 255.9p. Former CEO Alex Russo stepped down from his position in February after the group downgraded profits expectations for the second time in a year.
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After clawing back some losses to reach 342p by the end of May, investors once again deserted the stock following the latest set of results showing like-for-like sales fell 3.1% in the year to 29 March, with the company also presenting an uncertain outlook.
AJ Bell investment director Russ Mould said the purchase of half-a-million pounds of shares by the new CEO aligned Jegen with shareholders’ interests and sent a positive signal to the market that “he’s serious about turning the business around”.
“Failure to do so would hurt his wallet as well as his reputation,” Mould added.
“Investors often take director share purchases to be a positive sign. Many large companies require CEOs to buy a minimum value of shares within a certain period after taking the top job, so they have skin in the game. B&M is no longer a FTSE 100 member so Jegen may not be forced to buy stock, yet the fact he’s already done so in his first week has been taken positively by the market.”
B&M’s share price rebounded 2.3% to 261.8p in early trading today.
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