Stephen Garvey has been splashing his cash on shares in his house construction company Glenveagh lately, stock market filings show.
Just this week, he bought 150,000 shares in the home builder which, at the current price of about €1.46 would have cost him a little less than €220,000.
That follows on from a purchase in April of 100,000, which at the time cost him €126,000, and a purchase of another 100,000 in October when the share price was trading at about 95 cent, which would have cost him €95,000 or so.
His last major purchase before that was 200,000 shares in May 2023, which cost him about €190,000.
All of which means that the 550,000 shares he purchased over the last two years, at a cost of some €630,000, are now worth nearly €800,000, which is a neat bit of business for the boss.
Overall, Garvey holds more than 10 million shares in the company (according to the company’s annual report), worth close to €15 million at the company’s current share price, which has risen from about 95 cent a share in October to the current price – a jump of nearly €5 million in value.
Meanwhile, he’s been getting shares awarded to him under the company’s various share bonus schemes – in March of this year he was given 987,220 shares under the company’s long-term incentive plan, and he got 1.1 million under the same scheme in March of the previous year – as well as shares under the annual incentive programme.
Overall, the annual report shows that he has 2.2 million in nil-cost share options available, potentially worth more than €3 million at the current price.
That’s on top of Garvey’s annual salary of €600,000 salary, topped up with benefits of €24,595, and pension contributions of €30,000, for a total package worth €654,595 (which, admittedly, was down slightly on the €714,801 the year before). His total remuneration in 2023, including bonuses, was worth €1.5 million, the company’s annual report states.
The company’s generosity isn’t enthusiastically endorsed by all shareholders, however. Ahead of the last annual general meeting, the influential proxy adviser ISS recommended that shareholders vote against the company’s remuneration report, arguing that it was light on the details of the performance metrics by which bonus shares would be granted. (The company, in its last annual report, notes that “full details of the targets including information on the extent of achievement against them will be included in next year’s report”.)
It clearly swayed some investors, but only a minority, with 12.2 per cent voting against the remuneration report at the agm, which was held in May.
In any case, it leaves Garvey with more than enough liquidity to keep buying shares as they rise in price.
- Sign up for Business push alerts and have the best news, analysis and comment delivered directly to your phone
- Find The Irish Times on WhatsApp and stay up to date
- Our Inside Business podcast is published weekly – Find the latest episode here
