Chief financial officer Ian McGregor bought 17.5 million shares, chief executive Richard Rookes bought 12 million shares, director John Dennehy bought 10 million shares and director Paul Smart bought 5 million, according to NZX filings.
Adding the US office is expected to help sell Mercer's Titan slicer and Beta cheese processing products, with the acquisition projected to deliver "material" savings and set up "the platform for sustainable profitability", Rookes told BusinessDesk in November.
Rookes said there was an opportunity to roll-up medium-sized food processing and packaging exporters generating revenue of $10 million-to-$20 million which struggle to achieve scale, and while Mercer doesn't have any other acquisitions on the cards, it is open to more.
The company hasn't yet quantified any costs it may face as the result of the collapse of a silo at Fonterra Cooperative Group's Edendale factory, which it designed and built in 2009. The cause of the collapse is being investigated.
The bill has been put at as much as $45 million, although Mercer hasn't yet determined whether it has any liability, or how much would be covered by its professional indemnity and public and products liability insurance.
The shares last traded at 1.5 cents, having dropped 65 per cent this year.