Smiths City chief raises holding in company

Smiths CitySmiths City Group chief executive Roy Campbell has increased his holding in the retailer he joined in 2015 buying shares in an off-market purchase.

Documents filed with the NZX show he held just 2,603 Smiths City shares prior to spending $19,391 to take his holding up to 38,512. It was an off-market transaction with the seller named as Sim Nam Lee, with a price of 54 cents a share. His holding now amounts to 0.07 percent of the retailer.

Since taking over, Campbell has undertaken a strategic review of the Christchurch-based business, winding down its appliances-only Powerstore and LV Martin operations, rebranding some stores and closing others. In an interview with BusinessDesk in January, Campbell said the retailer was moving away from what he termed the “commodity” end of selling appliances such as televisions.

Chairman Craig Boyce said the purchase was made in the short window available for the CEO following the publication of its results last week. It reported sales of $221 million for the year ended April 30, with profit of $5.6 million.

Smiths City appointed the chief executive of the Night ‘n Day convenience stores, Tony Allison to its board on Monday.

The shares rose 3.7 percent or 2 cents to 56 cents. They’re down 3.6 percent since the start of 2016 but are up 8.4 percent on a year ago.

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