Er, yes, AusQuest did show its bad results to someone Email Print Normal font Large font Jamie Freed June 21, 2006
Advertisement AdvertisementUNDER fire from investors due to suspicious trading patterns, iron ore explorer AusQuest yesterday admitted it had shared a copy of its disappointing drilling results with a joint venture partner days before they were released to the market.
AusQuest shares fell more than 10 per cent on high-volume trading in the first hour the market was open on Monday, seemingly based on no news at all. Then, after the poor drilling results from its Nameless project were released to the Australian Stock Exchange at about 11am, AusQuest shares proceeded to lose almost half their value.
By Monday afternoon, the ASX asked AusQuest to reveal when it was first aware of the disappointing drill results. In a release to the market yesterday, AusQuest said it received the final results last Tuesday, while its directors and colleagues at joint venture partner Rio Tinto were informed on Friday.
AusQuest managing director Graeme Drew yesterday defended his company's decision not to call for a trading halt before the market opened on Monday.
"We've kept the data confidential and in-house," he said.
Mr Drew, a former Rio exploration manager, added there was no way that a leak emanated from the Rio camp.
"I would never question their keeping it confidential," he said. "That's not even an issue."
AusQuest shares tumbled a further 19 per cent yesterday to close at 26c, taking the losses to 55 per cent since the lacklustre results were released.
"I've had the odd call about disclosure," Mr Drew said, noting that an investor had first tipped off the ASX about the questionable early trading on Monday.
But he maintained that no leak had occurred, instead hypothesising that the share price drop was profit-taking after Friday's slight share price gains.
"I'm sure nobody's been aware of the results [before they were released to the market]," he said. "If we wanted to leak it, we would have a few days prior to that."
AQD Price at posting:
0.0¢ Sentiment: Buy Disclosure: Held
