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Curevac headquarters in Tübingen: share deals with question marks
Photo: Thomas Kienzle / AFP
When top managers buy the shares of their own company, this is seen on the stock exchange as a vote of confidence.
But it also works the other way around: Whenever board members sell their company's shares, investors take a closer look.
No wonder, then, that the Tübingen-based company Curevac is currently making headlines with its share sales: In June, the Group's top managers sold shares worth almost 39 million dollars - this is shown by documents from the US Securities and Exchange Commission, which the news portal »Business Insider «First reported.
The spicy thing: shortly before the sales, Curevac disappointed the stock market with its vaccine candidate, which at the time only showed an effectiveness of 47 percent.
Which begs the question: may managers no longer believe in the success of their company?
A representation that the company "resolutely" contradicts.
It's about a lot of money: According to reports to the US stock exchange regulator, Curevac co-founder Florian von der Mülbe sold shares for around 33.8 million dollars.
Von der Mülbe was the operational head of the company until June 30, but was replaced in this position on July 1.
The incumbent Curevac CFO Pierre Kemula sold shares for around two million dollars.
Technical director Mariola Fotin-Mleczek and head of development Ulrike Gnad-Vogt each sold shares for around 1.4 million dollars.
Curevac rejects the allegations
The fact that managers silver their company shares is not reprehensible. But the extent of the sales makes you sit up and take notice: Compared to figures from this group report from April, co-founder Von der Mülbe sold almost half of his shares, the other three managers threw more than 90 percent of their shares on the market. Curevac does not want these percentages to apply. The company argues that managers are entitled to many more shares that they are not currently allowed to sell. The shares named in the SEC filings represent “only a small proportion of the block of shares held per member of the Board of Management”.
But not only the sum, but also the timing of the deals causes question marks: On June 16, the group published an interim analysis that spoke of a preliminary effectiveness of 47 percent against Covid 19 disease "of any severity" was. The shares then lost around 40 percent of their value. Just days later, on June 21, Curevac reported the managers' sales to the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
It seems like the managers picked a bad time to sell their papers. On the other hand, according to SEC data, the managers sold their papers for more than sixty dollars. Today, the company's stock is only worth around $ 50 on the stock exchange. Did the managers try to get out before it was too late? Curevac also denies that. The argument: the managers themselves had no influence on the timing of the sales.
There is "no logical causality between the transactions described and current company developments," says a spokeswoman.
The shares were sold in accordance with the applicable guidelines on insider trading.
Management has completed a stock trading plan with a bank.
"The representation that an almost complete sale of company shares was carried out by the board of directors due to a lack of belief in Curevac is not correct," said a spokeswoman.
"We strongly disagree."
The Tübingen-based company is optimistic: "Our board members are still completely convinced of Curevac and our technology and are devoting all their energy to the further development of our company," says the spokeswoman.
But among Curevac investors, this conviction seems to be crumbling: Curevac shares were among the losers on the stock exchange on Wednesday too.
By the afternoon, the shares had lost ten percent of their value - some investors might have wished they too had sold their shares earlier.
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