Hanfa Was Wrong, Not Pliva?

Web site Javno.hr has a document, which queries whether the decision made by Hanfa that Pliva's rules of operating had been violated.

Web site Javno.hr possess documents which query whether the decision recently brought by Croatian Financial Services Supervisory Agency (HANFA). It says that Pliva was obliged to inform the public immediately, as well as the shareholders, about the Iceland Actavis’s memo. It was a non-binding memo on Actavis's intention of buying the Croatian pharmaceutical company, dated March 13, 2006.

In the memo, Actavis explained the basic elements of their offer for taking over Pliva.

-The memo, which came to Pliva on March 13, 2006 from Actavis, had information about circumstances or decisions which represented material facts, which could affect the price of shares. Out of it arose the obligation to inform the public about it immediately – stands in Hanfa decision.

Javno.hr got its hands on the offer sent to Pliva on March 13, 2006, and it is obvious that Mr. Robert Wessman, the CEO at Actavis, clearly indicates in a document that it a non-binding show of interest and the memo should not be published. Pliva emphasises that they obeyed Actavis’s demand, which means they hold the information secret till March 17.

This memo was meant to show a non-binding interest only. Its content and all conversations between Actavis and Pliva were not supposed to be shown to any other parties except to the Management and Supervisory Board and Pliva’s advisors who are responsible for that transaction, Wessman sent the message to Pliva’s board.

The other document, which questions Hanfa’s decision, comes from the Zagreb Stock Exchange. It claims that, as far as they are concerned, everything has been done in line with regulations. The Zagreb Stock Exchange notified Hanfa that in the period from March 13 through 17 2006, there was no contact between them and Pliva, therefore no conversations about the non-binding proposition by the Actavis Company.

The chronology on March 17, 2006 was shown in that memo. It states that on that day, exactly at 3.40 p.m., news about Actavis’s take-over of Pliva was issued.