Luxury Swatch: Hayek family buys more than 20 million francs after share price slump
Share price losses hurt shareholders. However, they offer confident investors a good opportunity to enter or expand a holding. This is exactly what happened with the Swatch watch group, where the Hayek family bought in for over 20 million francs.
16.07.2024, 17:24
SDA
According to a management transaction published on Tuesday on the Swiss Stock Exchange reporting page, 607,879 Swatch registered shares changed hands the previous day for a good 20.6 million francs. The transaction was carried out by an executive member of the Board of Directors.
According to the notification, the transaction was carried out jointly by three notifiable persons. This was the Hayek family, as a Swatch spokesperson confirmed the suspicion at the request of the news agency AWP. The family is prominently represented on the Board of Directors with Chairman Nayla Hayek, CEO Nick Hayek and his nephew Marc Hayek.
The largest Swatch shareholder is "naturally fully behind the Group and is strengthening its commitment to such an attractive share price", the spokesperson continued. This shows the strong identification and commitment of the family. However, he emphasized that this was not a Group transaction.
Share price plummets on Monday
The registered shares were acquired on Monday at CHF 33.94 each - a good average. At the beginning of the week, the shares had fallen by almost 10 percent following the publication of the half-year figures. They currently cost 34.05 francs.
As at the end of 2023, the "Hayek Pool" and companies, institutions and individuals associated with it controlled a total of 43.3 percent of all voting rights in the watch group through 62.5 million registered shares and 738,026 bearer shares.
Although the Swatch registered shares have a nominal value five times lower than the bearer shares listed in the SLI, a shareholder with these shares has the same voting rights as with a bearer share. Thanks to its registered shares, the Hayek family is able to hold more than 40 percent of the votes with relatively "little" capital.
