My interpretation of the release with key points ‘as is’ copied from the release that (in my view) highlights the intent of the statement.
1) ‘In consultation with ASIC’
Interpretation is that they (ASX and ASIC) discussed a particular topic and arrived at a decision (after evaluation other options).
2) ‘and having regard to the recent volatility’
The word ‘And’ is key (IMO) as the topic discussed above is directly related to ‘recent price volatility’. Price action is explicitly stated, it doesn’t say governance nor disclosures issues or anything related to ISX. Neither does it say it is related to OM or Media.
3) ASX has determined that it is ‘appropriate’ to suspend trading.
Of all the options available it was best to ‘suspend trading’. Agree that ‘to suspend’ has a negative association, but suspension was an option as the word used to convey this intent was ‘appropriate’. They could have continued as is, however, given the volatility from previous weeks, any indication of further investigation could have sent the share price further south. This would be detriment to shareholders and also in breach of their own duties/responsibilities.
4) Listing Rule 17.3, pending the ‘outcome of enquiries’
They were going to launch a series of investigations to determine the cause of the ‘recent price volatility’. What drove them to take this step is unknown, but my guess is the volume of complaints from the shareholder base and more importantly from ISX themselves (as per their own recent press release). Given they have access to all the data, a quick review of volume (shorts) would have them confirmed that something looks suspicious.
And while ISX will no doubt be asked to respond to several questions, so will all other parties, e.g. OM, the media and so on.
Its anyone’s guess which way this might go, but I believe ISX is going to come out fine and even stronger.
