Morrisons' Executive Arrested Over Insider Trading

Morrisons' head of tax and group treasurer Paul Coyle is under investigation by the UK's Financial C…

Morrisons' head of tax and group treasurer Paul Coyle is under investigation by the UK's Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in connection with alleged insider dealing before the Ocado tie-up.

In early December, the FCA said it had arrested a 49-year-old man in Harrogate, now known to be Coyle, who was taken in for questioning in relation to market abuse and insider trading.

The City regulator then said that the man's house was searched in a dawn raid by North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire police forces.

It has now emerged that the man arrested was the group treasurer of the UK's fourth largest supermarket chain. The Daily Telegraph yesterday revealed that Coyle was arrested on suspicion of buying shares in Ocado before it was publicly revealed that the companies had agreed a lucrative £216 million partnership to launch an online service for Morrisons.

Coyle has not been charged and the investigation continues.

Shares in Ocado rocketed after the deal was revealed and the online grocer was the best performing major stock in Europe last year. Ocado shares are up by 281% since the companies first publicly confirmed on 14 March that they were in talks about a joint venture.

Morrisons has suffered for not having a delivery service and it also had a very poor Christmas period in its stores.

Christmas sales were down by 5.6% on a year ago and the company now says full-year profits will be at the lower end of forecasts, around £783 million.