THE Securities and Futures Commission is conducting an inquiry into Guoco Group's sudden share price surge before the formal announcement of its successful acquisition of Overseas Trust Bank (OTB), the Financial Services Secretary has confirmed.
Talking about the selling process of OTB this week, Financial Services Secretary Michael Cartland conceded that the SFC had taken note of the unusual price movement during the week starting July 12.
He said: ''I believe that they [the SFC] are looking at it but I have no report from them on what the outcome is.
''It often takes quite a long time to complete the inquiry on those sorts of things. Whether they make a positive finding by the end of the day and decide to do something is too early to say.'' The SFC declined to comment on Mr Cartland's statement.
Yesterday Government Secretariat financial principal assistant secretary Raymond Li said: ''Yes, there has been discussion on this matter. The SFC has asked questions.'' Deputy secretary for financial services Tam Wing-pong said yesterday: ''It is the regulator's duty to study any suspicious share movement. This is an on-going routine matter.'' The official announcement that Guoco had out-bid other candidates in the competition for OTB did not come out until July 23.
But the share price jumped suddenly on July 12 from its close of $20.10 the previous day to $20.80 by day's end, hitting a high of $21.40. Its warrant also shot up from $5.35 to $6.80 on that day.