AMF France v. Theolia, C, Colibri and D (misleading information, 2009)

Judgment entered

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On 1 October 2009 the Commission des sanctions found that the wind-power group Theolia had given the market inaccurate information about its wind potential, its results and the sale of its environment division to Granit, and fined it EUR 300,000. Its former chief executive, a holding company and a director were also fined for undeclared share dealings.

The record

What was ordered

Civil penalty

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Disgorgement

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Prejudgment interest

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Total relief

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Alleged gain

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Penalty as published

€410k

A dash means the release did not state a figure we could extract, not that the figure is zero. Penalty and disgorgement are stored separately so aggregates across the library do not double-count the same dollars. This regulator states penalties in EUR. The figure is recorded as published and is not converted, so it does not appear in the USD totals or medians used elsewhere on this site.

What is alleged to have happened

The first section of the Commission des sanctions decided this matter on 1 October 2009, after an investigation opened in July 2007 following a complaint by an investor and notifications of grievances sent on 7 July 2008. Theolia is a wind-power producer that moved from the Marche Libre to Euronext's Eurolist in July 2006. The respondents were Theolia, its two statutory auditors, its former chairman and chief executive C, his holding company Colibri, and director D.

The AMF alleged that Theolia had published inaccurate or misleading information in 2006 and 2007 about its wind potential, its consolidated results and the transfer of its environment division to the Swiss company Granit, and had not told the public for months that the transfer failed; that the auditors had certified the accounts without reservation; and that C, Colibri and D had dealt in Theolia shares without making the required declarations.

The Commission found that the listing-transfer prospectus gave inaccurate and misleading information about a wind project for which a building permit had been refused and not re-applied for; that results in the accounts for 2005, 2006 and the first half of 2007 were overstated because assets tied to wind projects without permits were not impaired; that the March 2006 release and the December 2006 release misdescribed the Granit disposal, including its amount; and that Theolia waited until 30 May 2007 to tell the market the transfer had been cancelled, about eight months after learning of it. It rejected other allegations, including on a waste-plant asset and a German project, and cleared the auditors. It found C, Colibri and D had failed to declare some of their share transactions.

It imposed EUR 300,000 on Theolia, EUR 50,000 on C, EUR 30,000 on Colibri and EUR 30,000 on D (EUR 410,000 in all), the three last being for the undeclared dealings.

This record does not show any allegation of trading on the misleading information, or whether the decision was appealed.

This library tags the matter as misleading issuer disclosure. The tagging is ours, not the regulator’s.

For the regulator’s own account of the facts, read the primary document linked above. This page deliberately summarises the structured record rather than reproducing the decision.

What technique is this, and how does it work?

This action is tagged with one technique in our taxonomy. The tagging is ours: regulators charge statutory provisions, not technique names, so the mapping is an editorial judgement described in our editorial policy.

• Misleading issuer disclosure — see how it works, what statute it engages, and every other action tagged the same way.

Timeline

1. 2009-10-01 Commission des sanctions decision

Primary documents

Everything on this page derives from the documents below. Where our summary and the primary document disagree, the primary document is right.

• AMF decision page
• Decision (PDF, French)

The linked release is published by the issuing regulator under its own terms. Our summary and narrative above are our own writing.

Related actions

Other actions in the library sharing at least one technique tag with this one.

Record added October 5, 2026. submit a correction.