Financial figures for the first three quarters of 2003 appeared in the SonntagsZeitung newspaper on Sunday, 16 November 2003. On Monday, 17 November 2003, the price of Swiss bearer shares fell markedly. It subsequently emerged that, although the published figures did not correspond exactly to those that Swiss itself later released, they clearly had some basis in fact and were not simply rumours or earnings estimates (upon which listed companies are not permitted to comment). Rather than responding immediately, Swiss did not publish the actual figures until 6.30 p.m. on Monday, 17 November 2003.
Swiss is a company in which there is public interest and it attracts a great deal of media coverage. The airline has repeatedly been the victim of articles that have evidently been based on leaked internal information. Given past incidents, the responsible governing and executive bodies must have anticipated that such leaks would recur. They failed to prepare the quarterly figures in approved, publication-ready form quickly enough - in accordance with Art. 72 of the Listing Rules and Circular No. 2 of the Admission Board - so that it would have been possible to release them immediately either before the start of trading (or during the critical trading period as per the SWX rules) in the event of a leak.
Whether or not it can be stated in retrospect that there was definitely a leak is of no conse-quence here. The Disciplinary Commission maintained that, given its particular situation, Swiss must have expected there to be further indiscretions. A company which must anticipate leaks on the basis of its past experience may not gear its information activities under such circumstances to whether or not there has been a genuine information failure. Rather, it must take precautions so that it is able to provide information itself in the event of any real or apparent indiscretions in the future.
