Over two hours in the Milan offices of Consob. Saipem's top management held a long hearing before the Financial Market Supervisory Commission. At the end of the meeting, Stefano Goberti, managing director of the plant engineering company of the Eni group, did not want to make any statement.
The meeting had been requested by Consob to explore the financial events related to last week's profit warning. Following the announcement of a downward revision to 2012 earnings and forecasts for 2013, the company's stock had lost more than 34 points in a single session.
A few hours before the cut was communicated to the markets, a mysterious "institutional investor" - through the mediation of Merrill Lynch Bank of America - had sold 2,3% of Saipem, the entire stake in the portfolio, on the market. A timing that had allowed him to avoid a sensational loss: the shares had been sold for 31 euros, while after the collapse their value had dropped to 20 euros. According to the records, excluding Eni, the only investor to have more than 2% of Saipem was the Fidelity fund, which however said it was unrelated to the affair.
But the sale of that share package did not take place in Italy, but in London. For this reason, at the invitation of Consob, the British colleagues of the Financial Services Authority (FSA) are ready to start a parallel investigation.
