IndyMac Chief Executive Michael Perry passed on an option to buy one million shares of company stock, according to an SEC filing released today.
Perry noted that he made the decision without encouragement from the Board, in the belief that the options could be made available to a greater number of IndyMac employees and serve as a way to motivate and retain staff.
“I proposed the cancellation of these vested options because I believe it is in the best interests of IndyMac and its shareholders, said Perry. “While I am confident that in the long run the options would have had significant value to me personally…I saw that there was much greater value to IndyMac and its shareholders in being able to spread these options more broadly among many people at IndyMac rather than having them concentrated with one individual.”
“However, with the strong potential upside that I believe exists in our stock if we are able to continue to successfully navigate our way through the current environment and turn around our financial performance, these options will provide strong incentives for the people who are doing great things for IndyMac to stay with us and help us fight our way through the current crisis, he added.
“In so doing, I believe that granting these options more broadly will help to accelerate our return to profitability.”
Perry said he will not receive any compensation for the cancellation of said options, and no additional grants of new options other than those already specified will be arranged in the future as result of this action.
“The housing and mortgage markets continue to be very challenging, and IndyMac Bancorp, Inc. and its principal operating subsidiary, Indymac Bank, continue to pursue measures to prudently return the Company to profitability,” the filing said.
Shares of the residential mortgage lender, which specializes in Alt-A mortgages and jumbo loans, have fallen nearly 90 percent over the last year, were up 13 cents, or 3.38%, to $3.99 in afternoon trading on Wall Street.
It’s unclear if employees themselves are interested in the company stock, given the current climate and uncertainty about IndyMac’s future as a going concern.
(photo: alreadytaken)