Melrose chiefs in shares tax move

Top executives in the engineering turnaround group Melrose have placed some £68m worth of shares to pay their tax bills on the £126m of free stock they received under a five-year incentive plan.

The broker Investec undertook an accelerated book building to place 17 million shares and unusually the share price rose – gaining 12.8p to 418.8p. The chairman Chris Miller sold 4 million shares and the chief executive David Roper 4.2 million.