The two men will each sell shares for $18 million.
Check Point (Nasdaq: CHKP) chairman and CEO Gil Shwed, and deputy chairman Marius Nacht continue to sell shares on the market, in order to finance the strike price of the options that were converted into shares. A study of four separate reports filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) reveals that each manager has asked to sell one million shares for $18 million. Check Point currently has a market cap of $4.4 billion, after it lost 10% in value since the beginning of the year.
The shares that both men wish to sell derive from options with expiry dates in July. The options are believed to have been allowed seven years ago, at a strike price of around $10 a share, similar to the market price on their day of allocation. On the basis of this strike price, Shwed and Nacht can each expect to make a profit of $8 million in the upcoming sale. The current share sale is in accordance with the “blind” share sale plan that they announced in April 2005. Shwed and Nacht, who founded Check Point 13 years ago, said last April that they planned to exercise up to three million options over a period of 15 months, meaning up to June 2006.
Shwed is listed in the company’s latest annual report as having a 12.4% equity share (worth $545 million), while Nacht has a 10.6% share (worth $466 million). The two men’s holdings include the options that had not yet been converted to shares.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes.co.il - on June 18, 2006
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