The corporate watchdog has launched proceedings against Hochtief’s Australian subsidiary.
THE corporate watchdog has launched proceedings against German construction group Hochtief’s Australian subsidiary, seeking a financial penalty for insider trading.
Hochtief has admitted to an alleged contravention of the Corporations Act, but will submit to the Federal Court that it was “inadvertent”.
Hochtief did not seek, or obtain, a trading profit, the company said.
The breach relates to the trading of shares in Leighton Holdings, now Cimic, in 2014.
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission said Hochtief Australia pushed out the date for purchasing Leighton shares — from January 31 to February 14 — while it had inside information.
That information was that Leighton’s 2013 financial results were likely to be at the high end of previous forecasts.
On February 20, Leighton reported results and its share price closed up 4.9 per cent at $17.21 after trading as high as $18.40 during the session.
Hochtief’s last trade had been executed on February 3.
In documents submitted to the court, Hochtief — which was pursuing a purchase of Leighton shares through a broker — said it extended the purchase date deadline as volume turnover in Leighton on the stock exchange was “substantially less than anticipated”.
It was also difficult for the broker to complete all the acquisitions in the time frame, Hochtief’s court documents said.
However, in the instructions to push back the date, Hochtief had claimed it did not possess any price sensitive information.
Hochtief took a majority holding in Leighton in 2001.
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