Ken Morrison fined
SIR Ken Morrison, former chairman of Morrisons supermarkets, was yesterday fined £210,000 for a breach of City rules on the disclosure of shareholdings.
The Financial Services Authority imposed the fine after he failed to declare a reduced shareholding and voting rights in the group following his retirement in 2008.
The holding in Sir Ken’s name reduced from 6.4 per cent, worth £450million, to 0.9 per cent between 2009 and 2010.
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Under stock market rules he should have notified the company about the changes on four separate occasions but no announcement was made until March 2011.
The FSA said Sir Ken did not benefit financially from the rule breaches.
Failure to comply with the rules risks damaging investors’ confidence in financial markets.”
Because he co-operated with the FSA and agreed to settle at an early stage of the case his penalty, a potential fine of £300,000, was cut by 30 per cent.
FSA acting director of enforcement Tracey McDermott said: “Failure to comply with the rules risks damaging investors’ confidence in financial markets.”
A spokesman for Sir Ken blamed “an administrative oversight” following his retirement as a trustee of some family trusts.