NZME fined over breaches

NZME, which publishes the New Zealand Herald, has been publicly censured and fined $100,000 for two separate breaches of NZX listing rules last year. NZX rules require listed companies to disclose price-sensitive information so investors are fully informed. The Markets Disciplinary Tribunal, the independent body that determines whether NZX listing rules have been breached, fined NZME $80,000 for releasing incomplete, and therefore misleading, information on May 11 last year about its proposal to buy Stuff. NZME released a statement to the market at 9.31am on May 11 confirming it had made an offer to acquire Stuff from Australian publisher Nine Entertainment. The statement did not disclose that Nine had on May 7 told NZME in confidence that it had received a rival offer to acquire Stuff for $1. On May 8, Nine said it was terminating further engagement with NZME. Following NZME’s initial announcement to the market on May 11, Nine released a statement to the ASX at 10.52am saying it had notified NZME that it had ‘‘terminated further engagement’’ with it. NZME responded with a follow-up announcement at 12.11pm that it considered it was still in ‘‘a binding exclusive negotiation period’’ with Nine and did not accept that the agreement had been validly terminated. The Tribunal found there was a lack of balance in the announcements. Separately, the media company was also fined $20,000 for breaching listing rules when it failed to disclose the resignation of Cullinane on June 11 last year ‘‘promptly and without delay’’.