Fyffes wins insider trading case in Dublin

FYFFES staged a partial recovery from recent losses yesterday as the fruit producer said it had won an appeal in the Supreme Court in Dublin, overturning a High Court ruling on a long-running insider trading case.

In January 2002, Fyffes, which has a market capitalisation of some 200 million, started legal action in the High Court in Dublin against industrial holding group DCC, S&L Investments, Lotus Green and Jim Flavin, who was DCC's boss and a director at Fyffes, alleging that the sale of 31.17 million shares in the group in February 2000 was unlawful, as Flavin had price-sensitive information.

The five judges found, unanimously, that Flavin's information was price sensitive.

The move overturned a decision in December 2005 that Flavin was not in possession of information relating to Fyffes that was not generally available.

Fyffes said it was pleased with the ruling.

"The board of Fyffes has always believed in the merit of the legal action," it said in a statement.

Fyffes could receive damages of up to 85m (57.2m), which was the profit DCC made from the sale.