Reliv execs sell shares to pay tax
needed to settle their tax bills by selling a proportion of their
holdings back to the company.
The manufacturer and direct marketer of dietary supplements purchased an total of 535,008 common stock shares from CEO Robert Montgomery, senior vice president Stephen Merrick and vice president Carl Hastings, at a special price of $9.50 per share.
After selling 245,533 shares, Montgomery retains direct and indirect ownership of 23.8 percent of outstanding shares. Hastings sold 178,948 shares and retains 6 percent of outstanding shares and Merrick sold 110,527 and retains 5.2 percent overall.
"The sale of these shares to Reliv by these officers was made principally to provide funds to the selling shareholders for the payment of income taxes, arising in substantial part from the exercise of stock options, as well as other obligations," said the company in a statement.
It added that independent directors of the company convened a special committee to review the purchase and negotiate the purchase price, which was discounted from the Nasdaq market price.
Reliv's common stock on the Nasdaq National Market closed Friday at $10.52.
Reliv has reported consistently strong financial results over the past three years, as it builds on its firm US base and steps up its expansion into overseas markets.
For full year 2004 it reported operating profit up 21.8 percent to $8.98 million from $7.37 million in 2003 and a 26 percent increase in net sales to $96.98 million. Net income rose 24 percent to $5.37 million, or $0.31 per diluted share, over the 12-month period.
Earlier this month the company declared a dividend of $0.035 per share, following a 21 percent increase in income from operations to $3.4 million for the first three months of fiscal 2005. This was the third such payment made by the company under a program that aims to distribute a portion of income to shareholders on a semi-annual basis.
Reliv now operates in nine countries, including Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines and the UK, and will make it its first entry into mainland Europe in the fall, when it starts trading in Germany.
