Trelleborg fined for Yokohama-TWS takeover disclosure violation

Trelleborg AB has been fined 9.6 million Swedish krone (roughly £750,000; 880,000 euros) by officials at Swedish stock market, Nasdaq Stockholm. Nasdaq Stockholm specifically sanctioned Trelleborg for reacting too slowly to international reporting of the – at the time – proposed sale of its Trelleborg Wheel Systems (TWS) business to Yokohama.

Nasdaq Stockholm’s Disciplinary Committee specifically concluded that Trelleborg should have responded quicker to an article in Swedish business paper Dagens Industri reporting on the potential sale of TWS to Yokohama on 23 December 2021. On that point, the Disciplinary Committee found Trelleborg in breach of Article 17 of the EU Market Abuse Regulation (MAR) by not disclosing the information through a so-called leakage press release at that time. In addition, the Disciplinary Committee further concluded that Trelleborg “did not in due time clarify whether this information constituted inside information”.

Trelleborg confirmed interest from third parties on 27 December 2021 and subsequently confirmed the news of the sale of Trelleborg Wheel Systems to Yokohama in March 2022.

However, Trelleborg argued that “…the matter has been handled correctly and has explained that only early discussions with external partners were taking place in December 2021, and that these discussions were not sufficiently precise to inform the market” in an official statement issued 30 November 2022.

Tyrepress initially reported on the sale of Trelleborg Wheel Systems on 14 December 2021. Nasdaq Stockholm’s verdict documentation on the aforementioned Trelleborg AB disclosure case cited Trelleborg sources as saying that Tyrepress’s reporting was “correct to the extent that the company evaluated an indicative bid for the Wheel Systems division…”

Furthermore, the Disciplinary Committee itself concluded that the information contained within “Dagens Industri’s article on December 23, 2021”, which Trelleborg confirmed “had already been published on December 14, 2021 on the Tyrepress website…” contained “both a correct statement about the buyer and a statement about the purchase price that was very close to the one for which Trelleborg later sold Wheel Systems”.

Nasdaq Stockholm’s official documents also show that Trelleborg was already considering “a possible future divestment of the business area Trelleborg Wheel Systems” as early as 3 June 2021.

Trelleborg is expected to complete the sale of Trelleborg Wheel Systems to Yokohama later this year.