Norwegian Financial Supervisory Authority imposes NOK 300,000 penalty on Aqua Bio Technology ASA for breach of MAR inside information disclosure rules

The Norwegian Financial Supervisory Authority (Finanstilsynet) has issued a decision imposing an administrative penalty of NOK 300,000 on Aqua Bio Technology ASA for breaching the Market Abuse Regulation (MAR) Article 17 disclosure obligation, as implemented in Norway, by failing to publish inside information as soon as possible. The decision has been appealed to the Finanstilsynet Appeals Board. Finanstilsynet found that a numbered letter received from the company’s auditor on 4 June 2025, stating the auditor would resign under the Auditors Act due to negative conditions in the company’s internal control and reporting, constituted inside information under MAR Article 7 and therefore had to be disclosed immediately. The company’s 5 June 2025 notice convening its annual general meeting referred to a possible auditor change as a rotation assessment and did not disclose the auditor’s notice or its core rationale; the company first disclosed that the auditor had informed it of an intention to resign in a stock exchange announcement on 18 June 2025, and did not disclose the central parts of the auditor’s reasoning. Finanstilsynet considered it aggravating that the general meeting notice gave a misleading picture of the circumstances around the auditor change, and it also noted prior supervisory guidance to the issuer on MAR Article 17 earlier in 2025, while taking account of the company’s weak financial position in setting the penalty. Under the decision, the penalty becomes payable after the appeal process is concluded if the appeal is pursued.