Purcell Dermot Desmond's Canadian diamond obsession, Mountain Province Diamonds Inc. (MPVD), lost one cent to 35 cents on 246,000 shares. Mr. Desmond, an Irish billionaire who has invested in -- and then sold off -- London City Airport, Manchester United Football Club and many things in between over the years, has stuck like glue to his big investment in Canada's Gahcho Kue mine since he first acquired a major position in Mountain Province nearly a quarter century ago.
This week, Mr. Desmond revealed that he added to his position on April 6, buying 82,900 shares at 30.8 cents, investing just over $25,000 through his Vertigol Unlimited Co. Those trades brought his holding to 67.2 million Mountain Province shares. As it turns out, those four purchases, made just as Mountain Province's stock was bottoming at a 24-year low of 28.5 cents, were just the tip of the iceberg.
Insider trading records show that Mr. Desmond, who had earlier been eagerly buying Mountain Province's stock from mid-2019 through February, bought up 4.14 million shares at an average of $1.18. Those trades, which brought his holding to 66.6 million shares, accounted for about one-eighth of the Mountain Province stock traded during that time. Mr. Desmond then took a break, but since the COVID-19 crisis deepened in the latter half of March, he has been averaging down in a big way.
From March 24 through Tuesday, April 14, Mr. Desmond bought just over 1.07 million new shares at an average of 36 cents. Those trades accounted for over one-quarter of all Mountain Province shares traded during those 15 trading sessions, leaving Mr. Desmond holding 67.7 million shares through Vertigol. As a result, Mr. Desmond now indirectly owns a 32-per-cent interest in Mountain Province. He is believed to have paid well over $100-million for those shares, and for a time in the fall of 2017 his diamond investment was worth nearly $300-million. Today, his Mountain Province stock is worth just $24-million.
At last report, Mr. Desmond had a net worth of about $2-billion (U.S.), a wealth acquired through a series of eye-popping investments since he got his start as a banking consultant in Afghanistan in the late 1960s. (Mr. Desmond is getting on in years -- his 70th birthday is looming large and his distinctive Kaiser Wilhelm moustache is now gleaming white -- so there is some urgency in getting his lagging diamond investment to perform.)
While Vertigol's fellow shareholders no longer congratulate themselves for emulating Mr. Desmond, who is one of the fellows they affectionately dubbed the Three Irish Guys in the early -- and rosier -- days of the Gahcho Kue promotion. While they may not think of Mr. Desmond as the astute investor that they once believed he was, retail shareholders should probably thank him for supporting Mountain Province's stock so faithfully. Had he not bought over five million of the 37.6 million shares traded since the start of last summer, the company's stock might be near the 15-cent target recently set by Scotia Capital analyst, Scott MacDonald.