There is something seriously amiss with the cleanliness of markets when more surprise is expressed when a takeover bid is not preceded by a telltale run-up in the share price than when it is. The norm is for deals to leak and for cheats to prosper. Share price rises in both bid targets of the past 24 hours — AWG and John Laing — suggested word had got out. The Financial Services Authority has made a bit of progress in nailing insider dealers, but as reported in these pages yesterday, the scalps tend to be of naive or reckless small fry. The big fish escape detection. Establishing the identity of those who trade is easy. Much harder is establishing a link between them and someone in the bidding or target companies, or their advisers. That requires an appetite and a talent for real detective work. The FSA has yet to show much evidence that it has either.
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Financial services Authority
Target companies
Real Detective Work
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