The Financial Conduct Authority has found Newton Investment Management, Hargreave Hale and River & Mercantile Asset Management guilty of breaking competition laws for their involvement in an information-sharing scandal, which saw the regulator fine former Newton portfolio manager Paul Stephany earlier in February.
The firms shared strategic information on a bilateral basis during one initial public offering (IPO), understood to be Card Factory, and one placing, shortly before share prices were set, and then disclosed or accepted otherwise confidential bidding intentions in the form of the price they were willing to pay and sometimes the volume they wished to acquire, the regulator concluded. This allowed one firm to know another's plans during the IPO or placing process when they should have been competing for shares. According to the FCA, their behaviour "undermined the process by which price...
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