According to a source close to the Office of the Chief State Prosecutor, HANFA pressed charges against CEO Zeljko Covic earlier this week, but HANFA officials declined to either confirm or deny the news about the charges.
Covic is believed to have violated Article 149 of the Act on Securities Market regulating unauthorised use of privileged information.
On 13 March 2006, Covic received a non-binding offer from the Icelandic company Actavis on taking over Pliva at the price of 570 kuna per Pliva share, and on that day, the Pliva shares were traded on the Zagreb Stock Exchange at the price of 480 kuna. However, Covic kept silent about the offer for three days, and informed the public about Actavis's offer on 17 March.
The media have learnt that the charges read that those who sold their Pliva shares in those three days lost about 30 million kuna in light of the fact that final price during the process of the take-over subsequently became much higher.
HANFA believes that the information about Actavis's offer could have impacted share prices and therefore it was Covic's duty to inform the public about the Icelandic company's offer without any delay.
On Wednesday, Pliva announced that it was going to file a lawsuit against HANFA with the Croatian Administrative Court, "following the notification received on 22 January 2007 of HANFA"s Ruling that PLIVA withheld price-sensitive information from shareholders within the period from 13 March 2006 to 17 March 2006."
"Pliva continues to insist that it acted in line with all the relevant Rules of the Zagreb and London Stock Exchanges and in the best interest of its shareholders, employees and other stakeholders. During the entire transaction, Pliva fully complied with the Act on Takeover of Joint-Stock Companies, Securities Market Act, Zagreb and London Stock Exchange Rules, and other applicable regulations", the company reported on its website.
"With respect to the specific allegations, Pliva did not immediately publish Actavis' letter of 13 March 2006 due to its non-binding form and conditional nature," the company said.
Croatian drug company Pliva was taken over by Barr Pharmaceuticals, the US company in the autumn of 2006.
Upon the takeover Barr and its associates held 91.74 percent of Pliva's capital stock and 96.38 percent of votes in Pliva's Shareholders Assembly, according to reports on Pliva's takeover published by Barr in Croatian dailies in early November 2006. The report was published in line with Barr's obligations stemming from the Law on the Takeover of Joint Stock Companies. The price of Pliva shares was 820 kuna per share at the time.