DCC plc started a campaign in 2002 to get the Stock Exchange to help it end the Director of Public Prosecution's inquiry into suspected insider dealing, the Supreme Court heard yesterday. Colm Keena reports
The court heard that PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), the Investment Bank of Ireland (IBI), and William Fry solicitors all acted as advisers to DCC as it sought to undermine the Stock Exchange as a potential witness in any criminal prosecution brought against DCC.
The court heard that in October 2002 Mr Tom Healy, chief executive of the Exchange, met Mr Donal O'Connor of PwC and Mr Peter Crowley of IBI, to discuss the insider trading case.
A note kept by Mr O'Connor recorded Mr Healy as saying he would be happy to see "the whole issue go away."
Mr Healy also "confirmed that if he received information from DCC which now led him to the view that the 'information' was not price sensitive, he would pass this conclusion to the DPP".
Material from a series of memos written by people acting for DCC during the 2002 to 2004 period, and detailing its contacts with the Exchange, was disclosed in the Supreme Court yesterday.
One memorandum written by DCC chief executive Mr Jim Flavin in May 2003 details a conversation that month between Mr Healy and Mr Brian Davy, chairman of Davy Stockbrokers and deputy chairman of the Stock Exchange. Mr Davy had sought Mr Healy's view of expert reports that had been shown to Mr Healy by DCC.
A criminal inquiry was initiated by the Garda Bureau of Fraud Investigation after the Stock Exchange conducted its own inquiry in 2001 into alleged insider trading by DCC and referred a report to the DPP. The Garda inquiry is ongoing, the court was told yesterday.
DCC is an industrial holding group that sold a stake in Fyffes plc in February 2000 for €106 million. The sale was made at a time when the Fyffes share price was at an unprecedented high and six weeks before Fyffes issued a profit warning.
Mr Jim Flavin, chief executive of DCC, was a non-executive director of Fyffes at the time of the sale.
Fyffes is taking a civil action in the High Court alleging insider trading by DCC and Mr Flavin. The case, which opened in December, is expected to run for many months. Should Fyffes win, it could get the entire profit made by DCC from the share sale, €85 million. Mr Flavin and DCC reject the allegation.
As part of the case, Fyffes was in the Supreme Court yesterday seeking to overturn an earlier High Court decision refusing it access to certain expert reports prepared by DCC and given by DCC to the Stock Exchange and the DPP. The Supreme Court has reserved its decision.
DCC told the Supreme Court that it was "entirely proper" for it to seek to convince the Exchange and the DPP that it had done nothing wrong.