‘ASX making a scene’: director sorry for blackout trades

afr.com:

A director of Zeus Resources said he did not seek approval for a share trade during the company's blackout period because of a language barrier with the West Australian mining group's chairman.

Colin Mackay said his purchase of shares in the company was accidental, and accused the market operator of «making a scene» about his acquisition of $3265 in securities and options over one week in March.

Colin Mackay of Zeus Resources.  

“Now … they’re slapping me on the wrist. But fair enough,” he told The Australian Financial Review from Thailand, where he lives. “I’m wrong, and I’ve apologised … and I’ve gone and re-read all the ASX rules.”

Zeus is a penny stock exploring for lithium in WA, With shares at 3c, its backers include China state-owned Zhengyuan International Mining. Zeus has only just emerged from a two-year suspension after the ASX in September 2021 raised concerns its level of operations were insufficient to warrant a continued listing.

Mr Mackay’s acquisitions came within a fortnight of Zeus releasing half-year results, showing a loss of almost $367,000, despite the company’s insider-trader policy banning such trading in that period. That prompted queries from the ASX’s compliance arm, which were released along with Zeus’s answers to the sharemarket on Thursday.

The company said Mr Mackay, who became a director in December 2021, had advised “he was not in the possession of any inside information”, Zeus’s shares had traded lower for almost two months after his purchase and he had not sold any of stock.

He told the Financial Review he had simply wanted to round up his holdings – he had 18.5 million in shares and 12 million in options after the trades – but “looking two weeks ahead I got the date wrong”.

Mr Mackay