Geaney's 1.12m shares shed €28m in a fortnight

The value of the Elan shares held by Mr Donal Geaney, chairman and chief executive of the company, fell in value by €28 million (£22 million) during the past two weeks.

Mr Geaney has 1.12 million Elan shares, according to the company's annual report for 2000, the latest available. On Friday, January 18th the share price was €45 on the Dublin Stock Exchange. Yesterday the stock closed at €19.5.

Mr Geaney (51) has been on the board of Elan since April 1992.

He is chairman of the Irish Aviation Authority, chairman of the National Pensions Reserve Fund Commission and is a member of the court of the Bank of Ireland.

He has options to buy 2.6 million shares at an average price of €20. The annual report 2000 gives information on options and shareholdings up to March 9th, 2001.

Other Irish Elan directors have also seen huge falls in the value of their shareholdings and options.

Mr Thomas Lynch (45), Elan's executive vice-chairman, has seen the value of his shares fall by €20.4 million since January 18th. He owns 800,000 Elan shares, according to the annual report.

His shares are now worth €15.6 million. Mr Lynch is a director of IDA Ireland. He has 1.2 million options at an average price of €19.2. Another Elan director, Mr Brendan Boushel (71), a former partner in the Irish law firm TTL Overend McCarron & Gibbons, has seen his shareholding drop in value by €24.2 million.

He owns 950,000 shares according to the report and has 32,000 options at an average price of €23.

Mr Kieran McGowan, the former chief executive of IDA Ireland, has 200 shares. He joined the board of Elan in December 1998. Mr McGowan has 10,000 options to buy shares at an average price of €28.7.

Directors Mr Kyran McLaughlin of Davy Stockbrokers, Mr Laurence Crowley, a director of Rothmans International and chairman of PJ Carroll, and Mr Alan Gillespie, chairman of the NI Industrial Development Board, hold no shares.

However, they do have options. Mr McLaughlin has 10,000 at an average price of €28.7, Mr Crowley has 32,000 at an average price of €25, and Mr Gillespie has 32,000 options at the same average price.

Executives, employees and consultants engaged by the company have a number of million options on the company's shares under schemes run by the company. A spokeswoman for the company said she had no up-to-date information to hand on directors' sales of shares since the most recent annual report.