Provenco insider claims don't deter Christie from joining board

EFTPOS company Provenco has appointed former chief executive of Trade New Zealand Rick Christie to its board as an independent director.

For Christie - the chairman of AgResearch, EBOS Group and the Government's Growth and Innovation Advisory Board - it is his seventh directorship.

He also sits on the board of Tourism Holdings, Wakefield Hospital and the New Zealand Pork Industry Board.

Provenco chairman David Wolfenden said Christie was a highly experienced businessman and company director with a strong background in the international oil industry which was a focus of Provenco's offshore strategy.

Christie said he saw Auckland-based Provenco as a company with an exciting future.

The appointment comes as the company faces fines of almost $2 million after the Securities Commission laid charges of insider trading in the High Court at Auckland in December.

These relate to three separate periods of trading in Provenco shares between February and March 2003.

The defendants include Wolfenden, director Nicholas Gordon and former managing director Tony Bradley.

Wolfenden said the company expected to file its defence in the next few weeks.

The commission alleges that between February 28 and March 26 last year, three of the defendants bought 840,000 shares; that on March 6 and 7 there was a compulsory sale of 339,764 shares held by those shareholders with less than 1000 shares, and that on May 2 Provenco itself bought back 4.262 million shares, totalling 4.97 per cent of the total shareholding.

The commission said it was seeking compensation of $300,000 with penalties to a maximum of $1.53 million as well as legal costs.