Teva Finance Chief Sells Nearly NIS 62 Million in Shares as Stock Surges

Elie Kalf, Teva Pharmaceutical Industries' chief financial officer, has long been one of the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange's highest-paid executives. He is now cashing in on Teva's share-price rally, which has risen almost 60% in the past year and 255% over the past three years, lifting the company's market value to NIS 113 billion.

According to a series of company disclosures to the exchange, Kalf sold Teva shares in three large transactions under a blind-sale arrangement, totaling nearly $21 million, or NIS 62.2 million. His latest sale, in recent days, was 105,600 shares at $34 each for $3.6 million, about NIS 10.5 million. He still holds 65,600 shares worth another $2.2 million. Last month he sold 153,000 shares for $5.5 million, worth nearly NIS 16 million at the time, and at the start of March he sold almost 346,000 shares for $11.6 million, worth close to NIS 36 million.

Kalf also sold Teva stock last June, when the share price was only $17. In dollar terms, the stock has roughly doubled since then, but the stronger shekel has reduced the gain in shekel terms. He is a certified public accountant with a master's degree in accounting and economics, and joined Teva in December 2019 after about six years as CFO at FLEX.

Kalf has remained at Teva through its most difficult years. The company bought Allergan's Actavis generics business in 2016 for $40.5 billion, then struggled with heavy debt and saw its stock plunge more than 90%. Under then-CEO Kåre Schultz it cut debt by more than half, resolved opioid litigation for $4.3 billion, and replaced lost Copaxone revenue with newer drugs such as Austedo, Ajovy and Uzedy. Teva returned to investment-grade status from Fitch last month at BBB minus, while Moody's still does not rate it investment grade but has a positive outlook. Teva also recently announced its first acquisition in a decade, Emalex Biosciences, in a deal that could reach $900 million.