Kingspan chief executive Gene Murtagh has netted more than €3.4 million from selling shares in the insulation manufacturer on Thursday.
An announcement to the Irish Stock Exchange shows that Mr Murtagh sold 86,359 shares in Kingspan after exercising options granted to him in 2013 under a bonus scheme.
Mr Murtagh sold the stock at €40 for a total of €3.454 million. He had exercised the options at 13 cent each, meaning that the 86,359 shares cost him €11,096.67, earning a profit of €3.443 million.
Kingspan gave him the share options in 2013 under an incentive scheme dating back to 2008. Quoted companies frequently give executives stock under bonus schemes that tie the awards to performance, such as share price growth and returns to investors.
Other Kingspan executives who benefitted from the scheme at the time included chief financial officer Geoff Doherty, and Russel Shiels, senior director and head of its flooring and insulated panels business in North America.
The Cavan-based company’s shares were trading around the €9 mark when it granted the options to Mr Murtagh in 2013.
In early February 2008, the year the incentive scheme began, Kingspan’s stock was priced at about €8 on the Irish market.
Financial crisis
Construction-related equities were suffering at that time as the financial crisis and global recession hit investment, with a knock-on impact on building.
The group's value has increased since then as the business continued to grow both by expanding its existing operations and buying rivals in Europe and the Americas. Kingspan shares closed at €39.56 on the Dublin market yesterday.
Kingspan paid Mr Murtagh €1.54 million last year which included a basic salary of €770,000 and a cash bonus of €599,000.
However, his 2017 pay was lower than the €1.9 million he earned the previous year, when he received €349,000 worth of deferred shares and a €698,000 bonus.
Kingspan introduced a new share incentive scheme for executives in 2017. Its annual reports shows that Mr Murtagh had 141,480 share options on December 31st.
He had a further 133,793 options that had yet to vest. He will only receive those options if Kingspan hits earnings and total shareholder return targets set out in the company’s incentive scheme.
During the year, he exercised options over 330,844 shares at prices valuing them at a total of €10.8 million.
The report shows that on December 31st, Mr Murtagh owned 1.128 million shares in the company, worth more than €40 million at yesterday’s €39.56 closing price.
Kingspan has operations in Ireland, Europe, Asia, and North and South America. Last year, it grew profits by 11 per cent to €377 million. The company reported that revenues for 2017 grew 18 per cent to €3.7 billion from €3.1 billion in 2016.
The Irish group committed to spending a record €614 million on buying rivals during last year.
Of that it spent €174 million entering new markets such as Brazil, Colombia and southern Europe.
