The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said it got a court order freezing the proceeds of certain suspicious trade in energy software provider Telvent (TLVT.O) securities before a $1.36 billion takeover bid by France's Schneider Electric (SCHN.PA). The U.S. securities watchdog said a federal judge in Manhattan granted the temporary restraining order after the SEC alleged there had been insider trading in shares of Telvent, which is based in Spain but quoted on the Nasdaq exchange. According to the SEC's complaint, unknown parties bought 1,200 Telvent call option contracts between April 29 and May 27 -- roughly a 30 day period before Schneider announced the bid on June 1 -- at a 16 percent premium to Telvent's previous closing stock price. About two-thirds of the call options were acquired in the two trading days before the takeover announcement and in one case saw their price soar by about 480 percent, according to the SEC, yielding about $475,000 for the investors. In addition to freezing the proceeds, the court also ordered the investors -- who bought the options through an account at BNY Mellon's (BK.N) Pershing unit -- to identify themselves and prohibited them from destroying documents, according to the SEC statement, dated June 6.
Telvent GIT, S.A. is an information technology (IT) solutions and information services provider. Shares of TLVT remained unchanged at $39.75. In the past year, the shares have traded as low as $16.57 and as high as $33.37. On average, 348620 shares of TLVT exchange hands on a given day and today's volume is recorded at 0.
The Bank of New York Mellon Corporation (BNY Mellon) is a global financial services company. Shares of BK remained unchanged at $26.55. In the past year, the shares have traded as low as $23.78 and as high as $32.50. On average, 6750850 shares of BK exchange hands on a given day and today's volume is recorded at 0.
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