Bethel Finance news:
Gas flows from Egypt; gas doesn’t flow from Egypt. There is an explosion on the pipeline; there isn't an explosion on the pipeline. Ampal-American Israel Corporation (Nasdaq: AMPL; TASE:AMPL) is profitable; Ampal is losing money. Whatever the situation may be, the salary costs of the executives at Ampal, a holding company controlled by chairman and CEO Yosef Maiman - which owns 12.5% of East Mediterranean Gas Company (EMG), the supplier of natural gas from Egypt to Israel - are high. They are very high, as indicated by the proxy statement for the general shareholders meeting scheduled for May 5.
Ampal states that the salary cost of Maiman (65) was $3.4 million in 2010, or about NIS 12 million. In other words, his salary cost was about NIS 1 million a month last year, making him one of the top-paid Israeli executives.
Maiman received a base salary of NIS 5.3 million in 2010, plus a bonus of NIS 4.5 million. The salary is for his "achievements in the successful closing of the purchase of 012 Smile Telecom Ltd., including the financing of the purchase, the ongoing handling and supervision of the 012 Smile business and the successful offering of the company’s Series C debentures."
Ampal did not mention the subsequent successful sale of Smile, on which it made a capital gain of hundreds of millions of shekels, as a reason for Maiman's bonus.
In addition, Maiman received stock option grants that are currently worth NIS 1.6 million. The grant includes 500,000 options exercisable for ordinary shares at a strike price of $1.17 per share, and 63,750 options with a strike price of $2.95.
Ampal's share price closed at $1.68 on Nasdaq yesterday, which means that only the first part of the options grant is in the money, and reflect a generous benefit of $250,000.
Ampal's share price has fallen 31% in the past year, and 28% since the beginning of January, which means that the company's shareholders have not had a return on their investment (at least during 2010). The company also posted a net loss of $44.7 million in 2010, after a net loss of $19.5 million in 2009.
Ampal's market cap is $94 million. The share price fell 1.1% by midday on the TASE today to NIS 5.85.
No comments:
Post a Comment