UK financial regulator the Financial Services Authority has already reached a verdict concerning charges that Pace, chief executive John Dyson, and his predecessor Malcom Miller, violated stock market rules, according to newspaper reports.
Pace, Dyson and Miller are contesting the verdict by taking the case to the Financial Service and Markets Tribunal.
Pace said in a statement that the FSA has taken enforcement action against the company and two executives, but said it was prohibited from commenting further until the matter had been resolved.
The Shipley, UK-based company was hit hard by the collapse of ITV Digital, as well as the past turmoil of cable operators NTL and Telewest. It shocked the market and investors by making five profit warnings between September 2001 and July 2002.
In that 10-month period its share price plummeted by 93% to just 28p ($0.51). This was a far cry from when the manufacturer was valued at 900m pounds ($1.65bn) in 2000. It is now valued at just 115m pounds ($211m).
That said, the company posted a first-half profit on the back of a 32% rise in sales. For the six months ending November 29, 2003, it reported net income of 1.2m pounds ($2.2m), compared with a net loss of 14.1m pounds ($26m), on revenue of 110.4m pounds ($203.7m), up from 83.4m pounds ($154m) in the year-ago period.
The revival of ITV Digital as Freeview, in which viewers purchase a box to plug into existing aerials to access free digital TV channels for no monthly fee, as well as the market uptake of personal video recorders such as the Sky+ digital video recorder, plus cost-cutting measures, all helped restore the company’s fortunes.
