Australian regulator sues Nuix over disclosure breaches (updated)
29/09/2022 01:08
(Adds details, comments and background)
Sept 29 (Reuters) - Australia's corporate regulator
filed a civil lawsuit against Nuix Ltd NXL.AX and its
directors in the federal court on Thursday, accusing the
software maker of misleading prospectus forecasts for fiscal
2021 and other disclosure breaches.
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC)
claimed that Nuix made "deceptive statements" in February and
March 2021 while reaffirming its Annualised Contract Value (ACV)
and statutory revenue forecast for fiscal 2021.
"ASIC alleges that at the time of these announcements,
Nuix was aware that ACV for financial year 2021 was likely to be
materially below forecast, which made those announcements
misleading and gave rise to the need for corrective disclosure,"
the regulator said in a statement.
Nuix, which is backed by investment bank Macquarie Group
Ltd MQG.AX , has lost about 90% of its market value since
listing in December 2020 amid regulatory scrutiny.
Macquarie did not immediately respond to a Reuters'
request for comment.
ASIC decided not to take further action after concluding its
investigation into last year's suspected insider trading case in
Nuix shares.
"Nuix denies the allegations made against it and the
allegations made against the director respondents and intends to
defend the proceedings," the company said in a statement.
ASIC had also suspected Nuix of lying in its prospectus
ahead of the A$953 million ($684 million) initial public
offering.
The regulator had completed its probe in February into
the company's pre-IPO financial statements and decided to not
take further actions. urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL1N2UL004
(Reporting by Himanshi Akhand in Bengaluru; Editing by Shailesh
Kuber and Sherry Jacob-Phillips)
((Himanshi.Akhand@thomsonreuters.com;))