Nuix Ltd (ASX: NXL) is again in the spotlight. The company's CEO Jonathan Rubinsztein denies he was aware of a takeover bid from Reveal when he bought Nuix shares between 7 and 8 September, as The Australian reports.
Nuix's general counsel and company secretary, Ilona Meyer, said that Rubinsztein did not know that Nuix's non-executive chairman Jeffrey Bleich held a "highly preliminary discussion" with Reveal's CEO Wendell Jisa on 6 September in the United States. The discussion included a "potential transaction of some of [Nuix's] assets," according to a written response to an ASX compliance query.
Meyer said:
Mr Rubinsztein confirms he was not aware of the proposed discussion between Mr Bleich and Reveal's CEO or its content until he was briefed on the First Discussion with other members of the Board on the morning of 9 September 2022 in Australia.
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All above board?
Meyer also noted that in the 6 September meeting in the US, "no actual proposed transaction was outlined". Furthermore, she said "the inquiry was not reduced to writing". Meyer stated that the meeting concluded with Nuix uninterested in pursuing the transaction, and Bleich later briefed the Nuix board of the discussion with Reveal on 9 September. It's at this meeting Rubinsztein claims to have found out about it.
Rubinsztein sought written approval for the purchase of the securities on 1 September. Approval for the share purchase was granted on the same day. Meyer concluded the letter by affirming that its securities trading policy is sufficient to prevent the appearance of insider trading.
Rubinsztein bought 350,000 shares valued at $236,259.60 over a period of two days near the start of September. On September 9, my Fool colleague James noted that its stock price had rallied 26% on takeover rumours published by The Australian before its shares were placed on a voluntary trading halt.
Nuix then dispelled rumours by The Australian that a takeover bid was made by stating that it had not "received a bid or a written proposal from Reveal".
After the announcement, shares returned to the market once again.
Shares of the software development and distribution company are currently up 3.95% for the past month.
Nuix share price snapshot
The Nuix share price is down 4.24% today.
Shares of the company currently trade for 79 cents each. Earlier today, shares made an intraday high of 82 cents and a low of 78 cents.
The company's share price is down 64% year to date. Meanwhile, the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) is doing better. It's only down 10.03% over the same period.
The company's market capitalisation is $261.78 million.
