After a four-week contested trial, the Federal Court has found Frank Cullity Wilson, former managing director of Quintis Limited (Quintis), did not breach his duties as director regarding disclosure of the termination of key contracts.

ASIC Deputy Chair Sarah Court said, ‘ASIC pursued this case because we were concerned that information was not properly disclosed to the Quintis Board or to the market, impacting investors and their confidence in Australia’s financial markets.

‘We will continue to work to ensure the integrity of Australia's continuous disclosure regime.’

ASIC is carefully reviewing the judgment.

Background

On 10 May 2017, Quintis released an announcement to the ASX disclosing that the Galderma agreements had been terminated and that the termination had taken effect on 1 January 2017.

The announcement stated that the directors of Quintis had been advised of the termination on 9 May 2017 and were previously unaware. The Quintis share price dropped 43.93% on opening for trading after the announcement was released.

Quintis shares were voluntarily suspended from official quotation on 15 May 2017 and have not traded since.

On 20 January 2018, Quintis was placed into voluntary administration.