Football Star Pique Fined 200,000 Euros for Insider Trading... Purchased Shares Before Acquisition Announcement

Spanish football star Gerard Pique has been fined 200,000 euros for insider trading.

AFP Yonhap News

On the 11th (local time), the Spanish National Securities Market Commission (CNMV) announced that Pique was fined 200,000 euros for committing insider trading by purchasing shares of Aspy Global Services, an occupational health and safety service company, just before the announcement of its acquisition. The CNMV classified this as a "very serious violation."

According to the CNMV, Pique purchased 104,166 shares of Aspy Global Services on January 20, 2021. This transaction took place after he received information from businessman Francisco Jose Elias Navarro that Atrys Health was in talks to acquire Aspy.

The acquisition talks were made public after the close of trading two days later. On January 26, 2021, Atrys announced an acquisition offer for Aspy worth 223 million euros. From the day Pique purchased the shares until the close of trading on January 27, when he sold his holdings, Aspy's share price rose by about 20%. The acquisition of Aspy by Atrys proceeded as planned and was completed in May 2021. Atrys then sold Aspy to Grupo Echevarne in January this year through a deal worth 145 million euros.

The CNMV did not disclose how much profit Pique made from the transaction. However, the commission can impose fines up to four times the illegal gains. Elias Navarro was fined 100,000 euros for illegally disclosing inside information. According to the Financial Times (FT), representatives of both Pique and Elias Navarro did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The FT noted that as the sports industry becomes increasingly intertwined with sophisticated financial markets, there have been a growing number of cases where major figures in sports become involved in insider trading incidents.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.