AMF's Rameix sees EADS final report in March

AMF's Rameix sees EADS final report in March

	Published : Sun, 14 Oct 2007 20:53 By : Agencies Print this Story

PARIS (Thomson Financial) - Gerard Rameix, secretary general of French financial regulator AMF, said in an interview with Le Journal des Finances that he expects to present the final report on the investigation into EADS share transactions to the AMF board in March 2008.

'For procedural reasons the people who find themselves suspected have not been able to exercise their rights of defence,' he said. Neither they nor their lawyers have yet had access to an interim memo sent to the public prosecutor's office, he added.

'Events have moved very quickly in the past weeks, but the AMF enquiry goes back to spring 2006. Before the Airbus problems, our investigators were already looking at the share sales carried out by the management and shareholders of EADS,' Rameix said.

Questioned about the possibility of any fines imposed being scaled back through an appeal process, Rameix said noted that the Paris court of appeal has this week confirmed an AMF decision leading to a 10 mln eur fine.

However, 'above and beyond the EADS case, we want to improve our procedure for fines,' Rameix said, adding that he wants to see a process that will ensure greater impartiality in setting fines.

On other matters, Rameix ruled out the idea of lowering the threshold for public offers for companies.

'I am not shocked that certain shareholders come to direct the strategy of a company without launching a public offer with less than 33 pct of the capital. That's how the market works. If the other shareholders believe this hard core is not acting in their interests, they will take action,' Rameix said.

'The most important thing for the AMF is to make sure this threshold is respected, not to change it,' Rameix said, adding that this is what the AMF had done in the case of Sacyr and Eiffage, 'by preventing the Spanish group Sacyr and the investors with which it was acting - in concert we believe - from carrying out a simple share exchange without a cash element.'

Spain's Sacyr is currently appealing a decision by AMF that it must launch a takeover bid for the French construction company worth at least 127.78 eur per share and include a cash element.

Eiffage has launched a lawsuit against Sacyr for acting in concert with other Spanish shareholders without declaring its intentions.

Rameix added that if the French court of appeal overturns the decision and concludes that the shareholders were not acting in concert, Sacyr's offer would become valid.

Rameix also told Le Journal des Financesthat France was able 'to avoid the worst' during this summer's subprime crisis because of close collaboration between the AMF, the French banking commission, financial markets, the treasury and individual banks.

'The situation seems to us to be under control now, even if the fact that certain stocks are still not changing hands at a suitable price remains worrying,' Rameix said.

helen.beresford@thomson.com

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