Melco creates voluntary scheme for share options

The new options have an exercise price of US$2.4667 per share for eligible employees and other eligible people associated with the company.

Macau.- Melco Resorts and Entertainment Ltd has created a voluntary programme for those entitled to stock options to exchange their existing rights for a lower strike price, cancelling their existing options. The closing price of American Depositary Shares on the Nasdaq Select Market on April 6 was US$7.40 (US$2.4667 per share) while the new options will have an exercise price of $2.4667 per share.

Melco Resorts said it expected the new options to create “a stronger incentive to expend maximum effort for our growth and success,” and “encourage these participants to continue working at Melco Resorts.”

Last week, Melco International Development Ltd said it had decided to rearrange its share option scheme as the original plan was no longer attractive to recipients after the company’s share price fell sharply.

It said: “The replacement of the previously granted share options by the replacement share options – which bring the exercise price to the current trading price level of the shares – and the replacement share awards will better serve the objectives of the share option scheme and the share purchase scheme.”

Melco Resorts CEO awarded restricted shares worth US$15.2m

Melco Resorts & Entertainment Limited has announced it has awarded its chairman and CEO Lawrence Ho Yau Lung 2,052,206 shares worth US$15.2m. The shares represent approximately 0.42 per cent of Melco Resorts’ issued shares and are valued at US$7.40 each.

According to Melco Resorts, the award was given to Lawrence Ho Yau Lung for his “duties and responsibilities as director of a subsidiary of Melco Resorts in Macau, where the majority of the group’s business is located.”