The disciplinary committee of OMX Nordic Exchange in Stockholm has found that OMX AB, listed on that exchange up to 2 May 2008, has contravened the exchange’s rules by failing to disclose information. The committee has decided that the company will be given a warning.
The role of the disciplinary committee at OMX Nordic Exchange in Stockholm is to consider suspicions regarding whether exchange members, brokers or listed companies have breached the exchange’s rules or regulations.
On 11 January 2008, OMX disclosed that an agreement had been reached with the Bombay Stock Exchange governing the delivery of technology. The value of the order, however, was not reported in the press release. Instead, on 12 January 2008, Dagens Industri published an article that quoted OMX’s then CEO, Magnus Böcker, as stating that the order value involved “a few hundred million kronor“, making it one of the company’s “largest deals ever.”
The committee considers that the deal with the Bombay exchange was liable to affect the value of the OMX share, and, consequently, that the information should have been published in line with the rules of the listing agreement. However, since the interview took place while a public offer by Borse Dubai to OMX’s shareholders was in force, the committee judges that there was no risk of actually affecting the share price. As the breach therefore was minor, the committee only issues a warning.
The committee concludes that the information provided on the deal with the Bombay Stock Exchange was to a certain extent new for the market and was liable to affect the value of OMX share to a not insignificant degree.
However, as noted by OMX, the interview took place during a period when the public offer by Borse Dubai to OMX’s shareholders was ongoing and, for this reason, the current case could hardly be viewed as presenting a risk that the share price would actually be affected.
These quotes seem to contradict each other—the news was liable to affect the share value, but there was no risk of affecting the price? You decide. Please feel free to post your comments!
Post a Comment