Tocqueville Connection – The French stock market regulator AMF told AFP Wednesday it was taking action against the German bank Deutsche Bank and several British investment funds over a 2002 bond issue by the French telecommunications group Alcatel.
“The AMF is currently pursuing two sanctions procedures that target Deutsche Bank and several British funds,” a spokeswoman said.
The Financial Times (FT) had reported earlier that Deutsche Bank and the hedge fund GLG Partners could face insider trading fines of up to 2.5 million euros (3.1 million dollars) in connection with a convertible bond issue by Alcatel.
The Autorite des Marches Financieres (AMF) has been investigating the case for several years. Its probe has focused on whether hedge funds benefited from material non-public information about the bond issue before it was announced to the market.
Convertible bond issues weigh on companies’ stock prices, meaning that if access to such information proved to be the case, Deutsche Bank and the investment funds might be guilty of insider trading.
