Listed
general insurer, Promina Group Limited (Promina), has paid a $100,000
fine after ASIC issued an
infringement notice for an alleged contravention of subsection 674(2) of the Corporations Act.

ASIC issued the notice on 21 February 2007 because it believed Promina
had contravened the continuous disclosure provisions of the Act by
failing to inform ASX Limited (ASX) that it had received a proposal
from Suncorp-Metway Limited (Suncorp) to acquire all the ordinary
shares of Promina.

According to ASIC, Promina first became aware of the
proposal at 6:00 pm on 10 October 2006 and became obliged to disclose
the proposal to the market at 12:03 pm the next day (11 October), following
publication of a Dow Jones Newswire article which read:

“Suncorp (SUN.AU) is looking to buy Promina (PMN.AU) for A$7.50/share, according to talk circulating amongst hedge funds….”

ASIC believes the article contained reasonably
specific speculation about the proposal and that, as a result, the
proposal ceased to be confidential for the purposes of ASX listing rule
3.1A(2). ASIC also believed that in the absence of a request by Promina
for a trading halt under ASX Listing Rule 16.4.2, a reasonable person
would have expected the Information to be disclosed to ASX.

On 11 October 2006, Promina’s share price increased
to an intra-day high of $6.82 before closing at $6.48 (up $0.38 on the
previous day’s close) and 10,761,344 Promina shares were traded on the
day.
Promina did not make an announcement concerning the proposal until 8:29am on 12 October 2006.

On 12 October 2006, following the release
of the announcement, Promina’s share price increased significantly from
the previous day’s trading. Promina’s share price opened at $7.69 (up
$1.21 from the previous day’s close) and closed at $7.30. 45,470,397
Promina shares were traded on the day.

Promina has sinced merged with Suncorp.