Wiseman: There's no cover-up

ROBERT Wiseman Dairies has rejected suggestions that it misled shareholders about the progress of an Office of Fair Trading investigation when it unveiled record halfyear results on December 2.

Finance director Billy Keane said that there had been 'no significant developments' to announce, even though the OFT had written to the company on November 13 confirming that there were 'reasonable grounds' to suspect price fixing or market-sharing agreements involving Robert Wiseman Dairies and affiliate company Robert Wiseman & Sons in Scotland.

The letter added: 'The purpose of this investigation is to obtain specified documents and specified information that relate to any matter relevant to the investigation.'

Keane said: 'We announced the investigation in August. The OFT is asking for information and this is hardly significant. We are not obliged to tell every time we get a request for information.'

Chairman Alan Wiseman sold 600,000 shares on December 5 at 266p, raising £1.596 million, while managing director Robert Wiseman simultaneously sold 300,000 shares, raising £798,000. The shares closed at 266p on Friday.