Fortress REIT Ltd has welcomed the recent announcement by the Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) that there is no evidence of prohibited trading practices by related parties in relation to Fortress share trades.
The FSCA also found no substance to allegations that directors, related parties of, and other parties alleged to be related to, Resilient REIT Limited, Fortress, Lighthouse Capital Limited and NEPI Rockcastle plc supported the Fortress share price.
This was the last outstanding investigation by the FSCA into trading in Fortress shares by related parties since the closure of the insider trading investigation in March 2019. The investigation covered the 2017-18 period and followed a statement which had informed the market of the unwinding of the cross shareholding between Resilient REIT Limited and Fortress.
This also follows a finding in late May of a PwC review that there was no conclusive evidence to confirm any of the allegations made against Fortress or its management in respect of market manipulation or insider trading and in respect of undue related party benefits or wrongdoing in historic property transactions. This review followed an 8th August 2018 letter from ten asset managers calling for a forensic investigation into certain allegations that had been made in various analysts’ reports about Fortress and other companies in which Fortress is or was invested.
