Straumann Holding AG’s vice chairman sold a 10% stake in the dental-implant manufacturer to Government of Singapore Investment Corp. to meet other financial commitments, making the sovereign-wealth fund the company’s second-largest shareholder.
The sale reduces Thomas Straumann’s stake to 17% and increases GIC’s holdings in the company to 14%, the Basel, Switzerland-based company said in a statement today. Thomas Straumann also agreed to a one-year lock-up period during which he will not reduce his stake.
“The prevailing weak economic environment has made it necessary to reallocate funds in order to support and meet my investment commitments in other areas,” Thomas Straumann said in the statement. “My belief in the long-term future of Straumann is undiminished. Straumann remains my core investment, and I fully intend to continue contributing to its direction as a principal shareholder for the long-term.”
Straumann may have had to hand over additional funds to banks after the company’s share price declined, Switzerland’s Tages-Anzeiger newspaper reported Nov. 15. He’s selling hotels in Gstaad and Basel and may be reducing activities in luxury watches and sponsoring, the newspaper said, citing people it didn’t identify.
The stock dropped more than 30% this year. The shares gained as much as 6.5% today and traded 5.6% higher at 111.40 francs as of 9:10 a.m. in Zurich.
Mark Hill, a spokesman for Straumann Holding, declined to comment on the price the stake was sold at or what the vice chairman needed the money for.
A non-executive board member of Straumann sold 1.52 million shares for 150 million Swiss francs ($198 million) on Nov. 23, according to a stock exchange filing.
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