Remgro director won't resign

Cape Town - Doug de Jager, 57, will not be asked to resign as a director of Remgro after he admitted guilt and was fined for insider trading.

De Jager has long been associated with the Rupert family. He has been a non-executive director of the family's companies for 16 years, first at the Rembrandt Group, and then at Remgro.

The insider trading case concerned Rainbow Chicken shares that were bought on March 20 2007, two days before Remgro announced a deal with that company.

The enforcement committee, which was established in terms of the Securities Services Act, fined De Jager after he admitted contravening Section 73 of the Act, which concerns insider trading.

Remgro CEO, Thys Visser, said the case was regarded as a 'technical contravention' and that De Jager would not be asked to resign.

"He has a personal pension fund which is independently managed by a fund manager who bought and sold Rainbow Chicken shares in the period. De Jager had been unaware of this," Visser said.

Visser said that it had been divulged to Rainbow shareholders, and had certainly been disclosed in the documents to shareholders.

"Had he wished to do this deliberately he would surely not have done it in his own name," Visser said. De Jager's disclosure in the case read: "On 2 February 2007, the Remgro board approved the purchase of all the issued shares of Rainbow. I was a Remgro director and aware of the decision."

"On 20 March 2007, I bought 42 000 Rainbow shares at 1177c per share. On 30 March 2007 I sold 42 000 Rainbow shares at 1 644c per share," he said in the disclosure. He realised a profit of R195 837.

De Jager pleaded extenuating circumstances, having gone through a traumatic divorce and having been physically exhausted. He had never before been found guilty of any offence.

The committee fined him three times the profit that he had made, equal to R587 511. De Jager had not commented at the time of writing.