Hydro President and CEO Eivind Reiten has asked the company's Internal Audit to investigate how information about financial results became available to outsiders. Hydro's internal audit has already started the investigations.
During its planning of preliminary 2006 results on Sunday, Hydro was made aware by Norwegian newspaper Dagens Naeringsliv that the paper had access to working documents containing parts of the results presentation.
To avoid a situation where different information was available to the market during trading hours, Hydro decided to bring forward the results presentation by one day. At the presentation, President and CEO Eivind Reiten said the company would seek to find out how information became available to outsiders, and to do its utmost to ensure that it will not happen again.
"We wish to clarify whether the leak of information could be linked to failure to follow formal working procedures," says Hydro President and CEO Eivind Reiten.
Hydro will during its work to investigate the leak keep close contact with the Financial Supervisory Authority of Norway, which has started its investigation to determine possible violations to securities regulations.