Continental CEO pledges shares as collateral for personal loan

(Reuters) - Continental Resources Inc said Harold Hamm, its chief executive officer and majority shareholder, has pledged about one-fourth of the company shares he owns as collateral for a personal loan, according to a regulatory filing.

The Jan. 13 Securities and Exchange Commission filing doesn't state the purpose of the personal loan. However, Hamm's divorce lawyers recently said he took out a personal loan to fund a divorce settlement with ex-wife Sue Ann Arnall. Under a November divorce court ruling, Hamm owed Arnall about $1 billion and last week wrote her a check for the balance that remained, about $975 million.

Hamm initially pledged 68.7 million of his company shares as collateral for the loan on Jan. 9, according to the filing. That is around 18.5 percent of CONTINENTAL (CON.XE)s outstanding shares, according to Reuters data, or around one-fourth of the shares in Hamm's name. The CEO owns a total of nearly 253 million company shares, or 68 percent.

The value of the shares pledged by Hamm as collateral is currently about $2.4 billion.

Continental's filing said the terms of Hamm's personal loan, whose size was not disclosed, could require the CEO to pledge more of his shares as collateral if the stock price doesn't meet "minimum value requirements," without offering further details.

(Reporting by Joshua Schneyer; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe)