Tony O'Reilly's financial fortunes have taken a bit of a battering over the past few months, with Independent Newspapers, Waterford Wedgwood and Arcon share prices heading south at a rate of knots.
On the plus side, the Heinz share price has held up pretty well in the recent turmoil and is well up on its level of a year ago although it is still $6 (£4.2) off its near $60 high of last May. So it was interesting to see the Indo chairman dip into his wallet and snap up 1.6 million Independent shares at option prices of 81 1/2p, 131p and 170p.
That option buying took place when the shares hit a low of 240p - half the level of a few years ago, but Mr O'Reilly is still sitting on a paper profit.
That buying shows some confidence, but the O'Reilly exercise of options - and actually holding on to the shares - is a bit of a contrast to the way some other Indo directors exercise their options and then sell the shares into the market for cash.
Chief executive, Mr Liam Healy, and director, Mr Gerry McGuinness, have all raised a lot of cash in the past year or two in this fashion, although Mr Brendan Hopkins did spend £25,000 yesterday buying another 10,000 Indo shares.
