ANA Raises Alarm Over Stock Trading Spike Before Public Offering

All Nippon Airways Co. (9202), Japan’s largest carrier, said it was “unnatural” to see trading of its stock climb to a three-month high a day before the company announced a public offering.

“We recognized that it’s unnatural,” Ryosei Nomura, a spokesman for All Nippon, said by phone in Tokyo late yesterday. The company currently has no plan to take action after receiving assurances from the underwriters that they didn’t leak information, he said.

All Nippon Airways announced a 211 billion yen ($2.6 billion) share sale at 4 p.m. on July 3. Investors traded 24 million ANA shares on July 2, the most since March 27, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The stock declined as much as 2.7 percent on July 2 before closing 0.9 percent lower, while the benchmark Topix Index (TPX) dropped 0.1 percent.

Japanese regulators cracking down on insider trading have found that investors short-sold stocks using tips from underwriters before four public offerings in 2010. Ruling Democratic Party of Japan lawmakers this week urged that the probe be widened after finding spikes in transaction volumes before 25 issuances were announced, including a 2009 sale by ANA.

The airline asked underwriters Nomura Holdings Inc. (8604), Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS), JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) and Deutsche Bank AG (DBK) whether they leaked information on the latest offering before it was announced, and the firm understands that they didn’t, ANA’s Nomura said.

Spokesmen at Nomura, JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs and Deutsche Bank declined to comment.

To contact the reporter on this story: Takahiko Hyuga in Tokyo at thyuga@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Chitra Somayaji at csomayaji@bloomberg.net