Panevezio statybos trestas AB (hereinafter – the Company) received the resolution No. 214-40 dated 5 March 2018 by the Director of the Supervision Service of the Bank of Lithuania on application of measures to Panevezio statybos trestas AB. Following the obligations indicated in the decision, the Company is publishing the information included in item 2 of the operative part of the resolution by the Director of the Supervision Service of the Bank of Lithuania:
1. Panevezio statybos trestas AB has been fined 40,000 (forty thousand) Euros for violation of Article 17(1) of Regulation (EU) No. 596/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council on market abuse;
2. The Company, failing to ensure confidentiality of information related to the investigation carried out by the Competition Council, has not disclosed immediately this unpublished information related to the investigation in progress and imminent measures, the maximum limit of which amounted to 21 per cents of the equity capital of the Company and was nearly 5 times higher than the net profit of the Company for the year 2016 and therefore could significantly prejudice the financial situation of the Company;
3. The violation resulted in asymmetry of information available for investors and infringement of investors’ interests;
4. The violation lasted for 5 days of trading in the regulated market;
5. The identified violation is not compatible with fair and transparent market of financial instruments and protection of investors’ interests, and prejudices reliability and stability of the financial market of the Republic of Lithuania;
6. The Company did not accept the identified violation and took no measures to terminate the violation despite the fact that the Bank of Lithuania had drawn the Company’s attention to the violations.
The Company takes a position that public notification about the investigation carried out by the Competition Council would have possibly done more harm to the investors’ interests and the investigation in progress than failure of such notification because: 1) The Company treated the investigation by the Competition Council as confidential following the instructions of the Competition Council itself, 2) The Company has not performed any acts limiting competition, therefore had no ground to expect any fining, in particular in the maximum amount.
Knowing all the circumstances of the investigation by the Competition Council in respect of the Company, the Company considered fining in the maximum amount an unreal event, which is only theoretically possible. In that context, publication of such information was considered to be harmful to the shareholders of the Company, as that would be prejudicial to the reputation of the Company and more misleading to investors than helpful to them in taking investment related decisions. The fact that the decision of the Competition Council to fine the Company is unfair and unreasonable is argued by the Company at the court.
The Company published information about the decision taken by the Competition Council immediately after it had been received following the procedure prescribed by the law.
The resolution dated 5 March 2018 by the Director of the Supervision Service of the Bank of Lithuania may be appealed within one month from its service following the procedure prescribed by the Law on Administrative Proceedings of the Republic of Lithuania. The decision on appealing the resolution by the Director of the Supervision Service of the Bank of Lithuania Company will be taken by the Company after the reasons for fining are analysed in detail.
Contact person:
Dalius Gesevicius
Managing Director
Tel. (+370 45) 505 503
