no 52/10 Nord Pool ASA issues written warnings for insider trading and breach of disclosure requirements

Lysaker, 13 October 2010

Nord Pool ASA has investigated possible breaches of the Market Conduct Rules by
Lyse Produksjon AS and Lyse Handel AS. 

The Norwegian hydropower plant “Tjodan” is operated by Lyse Produksjon AS and
has an installed capacity of 110 MW. After an outage the plant resumed
operations on 6 April 2009 and the capacity volume was traded in the physical
market. Information about the resumption of the plant was not disclosed to the
market until 19 October 2009, however it was disclosed from Lyse Produksjon AS
to Lyse Handel AS. On 7 May 2009 Lyse Produksjon AS sent another Urgent Market
Message (UMM) relating to the Tjodan plant, from which it could have been
inferred that the plant was back in operation, however this information was not
explicit from the UMM. In the period from 6 April 2009 to 7 May 2009 both Lyse
Produksjon AS and Lyse Handel AS made several transactions in relevant
products. 

Nord Pool ASA has regarded information about the resumption of the Tjodan
plant as inside information as it was considered to have a potential effect on
prices of products in the financial market, and since this information was not
made public. Information about the restart of the plant should have been
disclosed through an UMM since the capacity of the plant is larger than 100MW. 

Pursuant to the Market Conduct Rules section 9 and enclosure 3, and in
accordance with the recommendation from the Disciplinary Committee, the board
of Nord Pool ASA has concluded that: 

(i) Lyse Produksjon AS has breached the disclosure requirements and has traded
in the financial market while holding insider information, ref. sections 3.3,
4.1c, and 4.5. 

(ii) Lyse Handel AS has conducted trading in the financial market while holding
insider information, ref. section 3.3.
 
The fact that the information disclosure was severely delayed and that insider
trading was conducted over an extensive time period has led Nord Pool ASA to
view this as aggravating circumstances. It was deemed mitigating however that
the information was not considered to have a significant effect on the price(s)
of the relevant products. In line with the above both companies have received
written warnings. 

Notably, the Disciplinary Committee argues and has recommended that:

a) It is required, for the insider trading prohibition to apply, that the
information in question is considered to have a potential effect on the
price(s) of the applicable product(s). It does however not have to have a
significant effect on the price(s) for the insider trading prohibition to
apply. 

b) It is not sufficient that information subject to disclosure requirements can
be inferred from comparing different UMMs against each other. Hence,
information subject to the disclosure requirement must be positively stated in
order to comply with the disclosure requirements. 

The recommendation from the Disciplinary Committee contains more comprehensive
facts and analysis, please see attachment (note: Danish language). 

Nord Pool Spot AS has conducted a parallel investigation into the same incident
in relation to the physical market. Please refer to separate information from
Nord Pool Spot AS in this respect. 


For further information, please contact Nord Pool ASA:
	
Erik K. Korsvold, Head of Market Surveillance, Nord Pool ASA,                  
phone +47 6752 8067 

Press contact: 
Trine Fersnes Riccardi, Communications Manager, Corporate Communications,      
NASDAQ OMX Commodities, phone +47 6752 8080/+47 9574 7497 


About NASDAQ OMX Commodities
NASDAQ OMX Commodities is the brand name for offerings related to commodities
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