Peter T. Leach | Jun 01, 2011 9:16AM EDT
Copenhagen’s stock exchange said Wednesday it found no basis for concluding A.P. Moller-Maersk had passed price-sensitive information to an SEB Enskilda shipping analyst last month.
Danish media reported last month that A.P. Moller-Maersk's head of investor relations, Henrik Lund, met an SEB analyst on April 11 and given him information from a draft of the first quarter report.
The parent of Maersk Line, the world’s largest container ship operator, denied it leaked early details of the report. SEB Enskilda also denied receiving such information, which would amount to unlawful insider trading.
The bourse said in a statement it had found no reason to conclude the Danish oil and shipping group had breached the rules of the exchange.
Lund told Reuters last month he had not given out information based on any draft of the report at the meeting with the SEB analyst and the report was not ready at the time.
SEB Enskilda said Maersk had simply given the analyst broad guidance on the consensus of research currently in the market.
The bourse said, however, a meeting between someone responsible for investor relations and a professional analyst should not result in such misunderstandings.