The ASX compliance division sent a price query letter to BTIM chief financial officer Cameron Williamson on Friday after the company’s shares rose “from a close of $6.28 on Friday 28 February 2014 to a high of $6.85 at the time of writing”.
The letter asked whether BTIM was aware of any information concerning the company that had not been released to the market “which, if known by some in the market, could explain the recent trading in its securities”.
In response, Mr Williamson said BTIM was not aware of any such information, or indeed “any other explanation” for the recent trading of its securities.
Mr Williamson also said BTIM was in compliance with the ASX listing rules, in particular listing rule 3.1.
Speaking to InvestorDaily, Mr Williamson acknowledged BTIM’s share price had “obviously had a good rise over the last 10 days” but that the company was “not aware of anything that would be behind that”.
Aside from pointing to positivity in the market and BTIM’s recent earnings announcement, Mr Williamson said the company does not speculate about the direction of its share price.
Asked about the motivation behind the price query letter, ASX chief compliance officer Kevin Lewis told InvestorDaily it was “simply a process that we go through where we see trading out of the ordinary”.
He refused to confirm or deny an investigation was underway into BTIM.
Speaking generally, Mr Lewis said a price query letter “in of itself” does no necessarily lead to an investigation.
“When a company tells us that they don’t have anything to disclose, we get them to confirm that fact in writing,” he said.
“It’s a way of us getting [a company] to focus their mind on whether they need to make a disclosure, and to put it on the record if they say there is nothing that needs to be disclosed,” said Mr Lewis.
