The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has fined an employee of Labroy Marine Ltd $50,000 for insider trading.

It took civil penalty enforcement action against Mr Toh Ho Tay for contravening the insider trading provision under the Securities and Futures Act (SFA).

Labroy, a company listed on the Mainboard of the Singapore Exchange Securities Trading Ltd, announced on June 27, 2005 that its subsidiary Labroy Shipbuilding and Engineering Pte Ltd had signed a shipbuilding contract worth US$70 million (about S$117 million) for the construction of two carriers.

After the announcement, Labroy's share price closed at $0.805, a 5.9% increase over the preceding day's closing price of $0.76, said an MAS statement today.

Between June 13 and 20, 2005, Toh, an employee of Labroy handling shipbuilding contracts at that time, purchased a total of 270,000 Labroy shares while
he was in possession of non-public price sensitive information concerning the shipbuilding contract obtained by virtue of his position in Labroy.

As a result of the purchases, Mr Toh made a profit totaling about S$19,600, said MAS.

Mr Toh has admitted to the contravention and will pay a civil penalty of S$50,000 to MAS without court action.