Wynn Macau Ltd says it has granted a total of 4,784,000 share options valued at almost HK$22.5 million (US$2.9 million) to five independent non-executive Directors, including chairman Allan Zeman.
The shares have been granted under the company’s share option scheme and will see the directors each able to subscribe to 20% of the shares each year for the next five years at a price of HK$0.001 per share.
Zeman has been granted a total of 1,340,000 share options worth HK$6.3 million (US$803,000) while each of Bruce Rockowitz, Jeffrey Lam Kin Fung, Nicholas Sallnow-Smith and Leah Dawn Xiaowei Ye have been granted 861,000 shares worth around HK$4 million (US$516,000) each.
The value of the shares is based on Wynn Macau’s price of HK$4.70 at close on Friday 2 September – well down from its five-year high of HK$30.15 in April 2018 due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on its Macau operations. Wynn operates Wynn Macau on the Macau peninsula and Wynn Palace in Cotai.
The issue of new shares comes after Wynn Macau recently announced plans to substitute a portion of some employees’ salaries with shares instead. On 8 June, the company added that 90% of the company’s management had agreed to a reduction in salary on the basis that they would be offered shares of equal value to the salary reduction.