Mirage discloses details on options, art

Tuesday, March 23, 1999 | 11:41 a.m.

The filing also disclosed that Mirage repriced "out-of-the-money" options for key executives in December.

Falling stock prices through most of 1998 left some top Mirage executives with options to buy shares at exercise prices higher than prevailing market prices.

"Due to the rapid expansion of gaming in Las Vegas and elsewhere, competition for management and key employees in the gaming industry has intensified," the proxy said.

As a result, the company offered affected employees the right to cancel their out-of-the-money options in exchange for the right to buy a smaller number of shares at $14.375 a share.

Holders of 99 percent of the affected options agreed to the change, reducing by 2.6 million the number of shares subject to option issuance. Mirage has 192 million shares outstanding.

Mirage stock closed Monday at $22.56 -- about midway between the old option strike prices that ranged from $16.1875 to $26.6875 a share.

The filing also reported that Mirage Chairman Steve Wynn bought four works of art from Bellagio and sold two others to the resort, which displays a $300 million collection of fine art. The sales, which took place from January 1998 through January 1999, were at the same prices as the original purchases.

Wynn leases art from his private collection to the Bellagio for $330,203 a month, the proxy said. In 1998, he received $4.4 million in lease payments, as well as $2.6 million in salary and a $1.25 million bonus, according to the filing.