SMITHFIELD – FGX International Holdings Inc.’s board approved a plan last week to boost the pay package of Alec Taylor, the company’s chief executive, in order to reduce his tax bill before FGX finalizes its purchase by a French company.
FGX’s directors voted to pay Taylor a $240,000 bonus, which it described as a portion of his projected cash bonus for this year, before the end of this month, rather than in February as originally scheduled, according to a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.
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The board also voted to grant Taylor 16,667 shares of restricted stock on Tuesday that he had not been scheduled to receive until the close of 2010 and 2011. The shares were worth $326,673.20 at 11:40 a.m., with FGX stock trading at $19.60 per share on the Nasdaq Stock Market in New York.
Charenton-le-Pont, France-based Essilor International SA announced Dec. 16 that it would acquire FGX International for about $565 million. FGX shareholders will get $19.75 per share.
Taylor also disclosed in the filing that he plans to exercise stock options to buy about 400,000 shares of FGX at a price of $10.11 each before the end of the month. At that price, Taylor would stand to make a profit of about $3.8 million on the shares once the Essilor deal closes.
In addition, the FGX board said it planned to pay Taylor a special cash bonus on New Year’s Eve if FGX stock closes that day below Essilor’s bid price of $19.75, partly to offset Taylor’s tax liability for both the restricted stock and the stock options.
Taylor became CEO of FGX in October 2005. Before that, he was president and chief operating officer of Chattem Inc., a Tennessee company that makes health care and other products under brands such as Gold Bond and Icy Hot. Essilor said Taylor will remain CEO of FGX after the takeover.
Additional information is available at fgxi.com.
