TSX’s Nesbitt bought shares, not trusts

I was told that the recent editorial in The Northern Miner (T.N.M., Jan. 6-12/06) contains this: “Those who had jumped deep into the trust sector in the hours before Goodale’s announcement made a lot of quick, easy money. For instance, according to CTV National News, TSX Group CEO Richard Nesbitt — by amazing coincidence — happened to purchase $759,000 of stock in the hours prior to the announcement and made a $100,000 paper profit the next day.”

Too bad you didn’t check with me because CTV was wrong. This suggests Richard Nesbitt purchased trusts. He didn’t purchase trusts, he purchased shares in TSX Group. The following is the statement I provided CTV, and I think I was very clear what he purchased, despite what CTV chose to report.

Mr. Nesbitt was travelling on TSX business in the U.K. during the week of Nov. 21, 2005. Mr. Nesbitt had absolutely no advance knowledge of the announcement made by the Department of Finance on Nov. 23, 2005. Mr. Nesbitt’s sole trade that week was a purchase of 20,000 shares of TSX Group shares. He did this after following all pre-approval procedures required under TSX policies and filed the appropriate insider trading report on the System for Electronic Disclosure by Insiders (SEDI) reflecting this. The purchase was made during a 1-week trading window (Nov. 21-25, 2005) available to all TSX Group employees. Mr. Nesbitt had not purchased or sold shares in TSX since being appointed CEO in December 2004 and, under TSX trading policies, this was his last opportunity to add to his core holding of TSX Group before the end of the calendar year.

Steve Kee

Director, Media and Marketing, Corporate Communications

TSX Group

Toronto, Ont.