Yesterday Colfax (NYSE: CFX) filed a form 4 with the SEC that the company granted its new President and CEO Clay H. Kiefaber 102’124 options based on the equal amount of common shares of the company’s stock with an expiration date in exactly one year.
The most interesting point is the exercise price of this option grant:
The closing price of CFX stock at $ 12.27 on Jan 11th !
The press release of his nomination cites that when Kiefaber was Group President of Masco Corp. operating income and cash flow increased significantly:
Seems that he intents to do the same at Colfax this year!
I think this is a positive move for shareholders even if the time frame of this option grant is short:
The threshold of $ 12.27 is not artificially low and only one year in order to enhance shareholder value is challenging in this still rather difficult economic environment!
It comes a bit of a surprise!
Colfax Corporation (NYSE: CFX) a company we track regulary here on this blog announced yesterday that its President and CEO John A. Young will resign and will be replaced immediately by board member Clay Kiefaber.
We don’t know Mr. Kiefaber very well because on the board of Colfax he only served since the company’s IPO in 2008 but the stock market reacted favorably.
The stock price moved higher together with the overall market.
The press release states that Mr. Kiefhaber has ample industrial experience in increasingly senior executive positions for more than 20 years.
At the same time Colfax reaffirmed its earnings and sales guidance for FY 2009.
We will discuss the results when they will be released later this year.
Yesterday Colfax’ stock price closed at $ 12.27:
this translates into a 69 % increase from $ 7.27 on May 16th, 2009 when we first discussed Colfax on this blog!