Blis Technologies, the NZX-listed biotech company, has been ordered to pay $30,000 plus costs for breaching continuous disclosure rules when chief executive Barry Richardson was caught on the fly in an interview with the Sunday Star-Times newspaper in August.
The New Zealand markets disciplinary tribunal publicly censured the Dunedin-based firm, and ordered the penalty after finding Blis breached continuous disclosure obligations when the chief executive told a Fairfax Media publication its oral probiotics product would be distributed in 600 stores in China by pharmaceutical firm, Sinopharm, before informing the NZX. The stock market operator sought a penalty of $30,000, which matched two similar decisions.
"In imposing this penalty, the tribunal wishes to emphasise that compliance with the continuous disclosure requirements in the rules is of fundamental importance to the integrity of the market," the tribunal said. "Material information must be immediately released to the market unless a permitted exception applies and must not be released to a member of the public before its release to NZX."
Last month Blis said it faced a claim from the NZX disciplinary unit, and estimated total costs would come in below $50,000.
The tribunal said the breach was "particularly serious" because Blis didn't recognise that the Sinopharm expansion was material, but also released the information to a journalist before the market, "with the result that the market was not operating on a fully informed basis (albeit for what appears to be only a relatively short period of time)."
