Supreme Administrative Court did not grant Danko Koncar permission to appeal – FIN-FSA decisions now legally binding

By its decision issued on 1 March 2019, the Helsinki Administrative Court rejected the appeal made by Danko Koncar to repeal the decision of the FIN-FSA of 21 February 2018 (decision on the obligation to launch a bid) obliging Koncar to launch a public bid for Afarak Group Plc shares under the penalty of a fine. The Administrative Court also rejected the appeal made by Koncar to repeal the decision of the FIN-FSA of 9 July 2018 (decision on the imposition of a conditional fine) to order Koncar to pay the base amount of the conditional fine, 40,000,000 euro, since the obligation to launch a bid had not been complied with. However, the Administrative Court considered that the supplementary amount of 10,000,000 euro of the conditional fine had not accrued by the time when the appealed decision was made and therefore repealed the FIN-FSA decision regarding the supplementary amount.

Danko Koncar appealed the decisions of the Helsinki Administrative Court to the Supreme Administrative Court. After the Supreme Administrative Court, by its decisions of 24 April 2020, rejected Koncar's applications for a leave to appeal, the decisions of the Helsinki Administrative Court remain in force. Therefore, the FIN-FSA decision on the obligation to launch a bid and the decision on the imposition of a conditional fine, as regards the base amount, are now legally binding. In practice, this means that it is no longer possible to seek amendment to the FIN-FSA decisions through actual appeal proceedings.

Although the FIN-FSA decisions have lacked legal force, the FIN-FSA has been allowed by law to seek enforcement of the decisions. With respect to the decision on the obligation to launch a bid, enforcement means that the conditional fines imposed to enforce the obligation to launch a bid have been ordered payable since Koncar failed to launch a bid for shares in Afarak Group Plc or to present a valid reason for non-compliance with the obligation. With respect to the decision on the imposition of the conditional fines, the FIN-FSA has sought enforcement of the conditional fine in Finland by the enforcement authority.

See also

• Release of the Supreme Administrative Court of 27 April 2020: (in Finnish)
• FIN-FSA's Q&A (updated on 27 April 2020)
• Press release of the Financial Supervisory Authority of 1 March 2019: The Helsinki Administrative Court issued its decisions on appeals by Danko Koncar
• Release of the Helsinki Administrative Court of 1 March 2019: Koncarin on tehtävä julkinen ostotarjous Afarak Group Oyj:n osakkeista (in Finnish)
• Press release of the Financial Supervisory Authority of 22 February 2018: FIN-FSA obliges Danko Koncar to launch takeover bid for Afarak Group Plc shares – enforced by running conditional fine
• Press release of the Financial Supervisory Authority of 10 July 2018: FIN-FSA ordered conditional fine imposed on Danko Koncar payable