Reported by: Kaye Wiggins

Sweden’s financial regulator has closed a year-long market abuse probe into a $2.7bn share sale by top executives at private equity group EQT and will not take action against the buyout group.

The Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority investigated whether Stockholm-based EQT violated market abuse rules by failing to promptly disclose that it was considering ending a lock-up period early, a move that enabled its most senior executives to sell stock a year earlier than planned.

Under the lock-up agreement from EQT’s 2019 initial public offering, shares were not supposed to be sold until September 2022. But EQT said on September 7 last year that the lock-up would be partially ended a year early, allowing partners at the company to sell $2.7bn of stock.

EQT’s board had “granted a mandate” to its chief financial officer on August 31 last year to decide whether and when the lock-up period should be changed, the Swedish regulator found. It said a decision to end the lock-up a year early was made on September 7 and announced about an hour later.

The August 31 decision amounted to inside information, the regulator said. However, it found that EQT was permitted to refrain from disclosing it at the time.

Read full report: https://www.ft.com/content/5f22d5e9-e77c-4e6c-9e89-49bcd962dea3