DCC and Fyffes agree on charges

AN AGREEMENT has been reached between DCC and Fyffes on how to calculate the amount that may have to be paid out in their long-running insider dealing case.

After the Supreme Court ruled in July last year that DCC and its chief executive Jim Flavin had illegally engaged in insider dealing in Fyffes shares, DCC booked an exceptional charge of €50 million in its accounts for the six months to the end of September 2007. DCC estimated that this was would cover both the legal bills for the case and the share of the profits it made when it sold its 10% stake.

DCC had made a total profit on the sale of its 10% stake in Fyffes in February 2000 of nearly €86m. In addition, it is estimated that the legal costs are running at about €25m.

Fyffes had been seeking the total profit made by DCC on the share sale. But in the High Court yesterday both sides agreed to a specified section of the 1990 Companies Act.

This means that the share of profit to be received by Fyffes, which will be decided at hearing in the High Court later this year, will be the difference between the actual prices at which the shares in Fyffes were sold by the DCC in February 2000 and the likely hypothetical prices at which those shares would have been sold if the insider information had been generally available.