Fruit importer Fyffes has lost its High Court bid to reclaim up to €85m profit made by DCC, a company which held a major shareholding in the fruit group. Shares in Fyffes were down 3.5% while DCC shares gained over 6.5% after the ruling.
In the largest case of its kind before the Irish courts, Ms Justice Mary Laffoy ruled that DCC's CEO Jim Flavin - who was also a director of Fyffes - did not have price sensitive information when he sold the shares over five years ago.
Justice Laffoy ruled that the sale of Fyffes shares by DCC was not unlawful.
Fyffes had claimed Mr Flavin had confidential information that the fruit group's profits were about to fall before DCC sold its shares for more than €100m.
Costs in the case have run to an estimated €18m. Ms Justice Laffoy is to have a separate hearing regarding the awarding of costs.
In the High Court case, DCC had argued that Mr Flavin had not dealt in the shares directly because a subsidiary had handled the sale of the shares.
But in her judgement today Justice Laffoy found that DCC and its subsidiaries had operated as a 'single entity'. She found Mr Flavin had acted as an agent for DCC and its subsidiaries.
Reacting to the judgement, Fyffes' chairman Carl McCann said the company would consider an appeal. He said the company was obviously very disappointed with the ruling but still believed it had taken the correct decision in pursuing the case.
Following the judgement, shares in DCC rose by 6.6% to close at €17.70 in Dublin, while Fyffes dropped four cent to €2.29.
