Fyffes' message at odds with allegation - counsel

The chief executive of Fyffes, Mr David McCann, has now spent two days being cross-examined by counsel for DCC and Mr Jim Flavin.

The cross-examination follows a week-long opening statement from Fyffes and a short examination of Mr McCann by counsel for Fyffes.

Mr Kevin Feeney SC, for DCC and Mr Flavin, has been questioning Mr McCann about actions and statements by Fyffes in the period December 1999 to March 2000 which, Mr Feeney says, are inconsistent with Fyffes' allegation that information Mr Flavin obtained in the months prior to February 2000 constituted price-sensitive information.

Fyffes issued an outlook statement on December 14th, 1999, which predicted further growth during 2000. On February 17th, 2000, the company issued a chairman's statement dated January 31st, 1999, which repeated this view.

"This was our public position as of that time," said Mr McCann.

During the period January to March 2000, Fyffes conducted investor promotions in Ireland, the UK and the US which concentrated on the company's then project, worldoffruit.com.

In relation to trading, the potential investors were not told of the concerns Fyffes then held. "They were informed as to the public position of Fyffes and the public position as of that time was the position as of December 14th... We were not talking about the underlying trading difficulties."

The company made presentations during the first two weeks of March. The company issued a profit warning on March 20th.

Asked if he had been an investor attending those meetings, would he have felt, after the profit warning, that he had been properly dealt with, Mr McCann said investors were professionals and understood that companies could not disclose information until it was announced publicly.

Mr McCann said that by the end of January 2000, "the game was over" for the financial year to end October. He had hoped the outcomes of two court cases would boost the half-year figure, but the cases did not deliver.