OMV chief under probe for insider trading in shares

Dubai: The chief executive of Austria's largest oil and gas company OMV, Wolfgang Ruttenstorfer, is under scrutiny for alleged insider trading with company shares as well as alleged market manipulation.

OMV is one of the most significant equity investments by Abu Dhabi's International Petroleum Investment Company (Ipic) in Europe, with 19.2 per cent of OMV's shares held by Ipic.

The supervisory authority of the Vienna stock exchange confirmed on Tuesday that they are investigating a share deal by Ruttenstorfer worth 620,000 euros (Dh2.79 million) executed on March 23, just before OMV surprisingly sold its stake in its loss-making Hungarian competitor, oil company MOL. After the sale, shares of OMV rose 3.3 per cent while the Austrian Traded Index ATX fell more than four per cent due to otherwise poor market conditions that day.

According to the spokesman of the supervisory authority, Klaus Grubelnik, the deal is investigated on suspicion of insider trading and market manipulation. If found guilty of misusing insider information, Ruttenstorfer could face a jail term up to three years under Austrian law, and if convicted for market manipulation, a penalty of up to 50,000 euros applies.

Ruttenstorfer has not commented on the allegations, but OMV released a statement saying that the company is "aware of the case", is going to "cooperate with the authorities" and "will abide by all rules and regulations".