Vinyl gets an ASX telling off, escapes Index rout
Leaky relations? The AFR story that caused the rebuke
Vinyl has received a stern letter from the ASX following the Australian Financial Review’s scoop on the music and tech group buying Val Morgan Digital.
The AFR’s piece on the $10.5m acquisition went live at 3:50pm on Sunday afternoon, 37 minutes before Vinyl told the ASX about the deal. It was not until 8:18am on Monday morning that the ASX published the notice. The AFR article included quotes from Val Morgan CEO Damian Keogh and Vinyl CEO Josh Simons.
On the surface, a textbook example of breaching market rules prohibiting the release of market-moving information to third parties before the ASX.
Vinyl’s defence — also laid out in a notice to the ASX – came in swiftly: it did not leak the information about the deal to anyone. Instead, it blamed the leak on an external investor relations employee, and said that it terminated its relationship with that company. The quotes in the AFR were directly lifted from the draft release, and mistakes in the draft repeated in the AFR article prove its provenance.
Ironic that on the day Vinyl was slapped lightly for breaking the rules, it was the only stock to gain (+2.35%) while most copped a beating.
In its decline, the Unmade Index was following the wider ASX as investors reacted to the war in the Middle East.
ARN led the falls, down 4.29%, followed by Enero down 4.42% and Nine down 3.67%. Ive was down 2.99%, Pureprofile down 2.38% and Ooh Media down 2.24%, while Southern Cross fell 2.08%. News Corp was down 1.38%. The sharpest single move came from Sports Entertainment Group, down 10.00%.
Unfortunately the Unmade Index has set a new, negative record, dipping under 400 for the first time. It came to rest on 392.0, or 3.12% down for the day.
NOTE: This article initially stated that Val Morgan’s Damian Keogh had spoken with the AFR directly about Vinyl’s acquisition. This was taken from the AFR article, and according to Val Morgan is not correct. Instead, Keogh’s quotes, like Simons’, were lifted from the draft release.
