Luxury Swatch: Hayek family buys more shares for almost 11 million
The Hayek family's purchases of shares in the Swatch watch group continue. After Nayla, Nick and Marc Hayek bought a good 20.6 million Swiss francs worth of registered shares on Monday, they made another purchase on Tuesday (yesterday).
17.07.2024, 13:50
SDA
According to a management transaction published on Wednesday on the reporting page of the Swiss Stock Exchange, 321,033 Swatch registered shares changed hands for a good 10.9 million the day before. According to the announcement, the transaction was carried out jointly by three notifiable persons.
These were the Hayek family, as a Swatch spokesperson confirmed to AWP at the beginning of the week. The family is prominently represented on the Board of Directors with Chairman Nayla Hayek, CEO Nick Hayek and his nephew Marc Hayek.
The three of them have thus raised more than 31 million Swiss francs in two days for almost 930,000 registered shares. The largest Swatch shareholder is "fully behind the Group and is strengthening its commitment at such an attractive price", the spokesman explained on Tuesday.
Share price plunge on Monday
The registered shares were purchased on Tuesday at CHF 34.00 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 33.90 francs.
As at the end of 2023, the "Hayek pool" and companies, institutions and individuals close to it - i.e. before these new transactions - 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.
