ARL.L Regulatory News (ARL)

23 Jan 2006 17:00

SMC Group Plc23 January 2006 23 January 2006 SMC Group Plc ("SMC" or "the Company") Directors' dealings and shareholdings SMC Group Plc ("SMC" or the "Company"), announces that on 23 November 2005, itapproved the granting of 157,695 options over existing ordinary shares, at nilcost, to Sir Rodney Walker, Chairman, in recognition of the enormouscontribution he made to the successful admission of the Company to AIM. On 23 November 2005, each of the four founding directors, Stewart McColl (GroupChief Executive), Nicholas Wills (Non-Executive Director), David Pedley (FinanceDirector) and Richard Young (Non-Executive Director), granted options over 0.8%of their respective holdings, to Sir Rodney Walker. Sir Rodney exercised the above options on 30 November at £1.00 per option.Pursuant to this exercise of options, Sir Rodney acquired 157,695 ordinaryshares in the Company, representing a total of 0.46% of the current issued sharecapital of the Company. Of these 157,695 shares, 67,876 were acquired fromStewart McColl, 38,075 from Nicholas Wills, 38,075 from David Pedley and 13,669from Richard Young. Sir Rodney Walker's total shareholding in the Company,after exercise of the options, is 638,170 ordinary shares, representing 1.8% ofthe current issued share capital of SMC. Each of the four founding directors of the Company also granted 0.2% of theirholding to a charity of their choice, representing a total of 39,424 ordinaryshares. Stewart McColl donated 16,969 ordinary shares, Nicholas Wills 9,519ordinary shares, David Pedley 9,519 ordinary shares and Richard Young 3,417ordinary shares. Following the above transfers Stewart McColl's total shareholding in the Companyis 8,399,689 ordinary shares, representing 24.3% of the current issued sharecapital of SMC. Following the above transfers Nicholas Will's total shareholding in the Companyis 4,711,806 ordinary shares, representing 13.6% of the current issued sharecapital of SMC. Following the above transfers David Pedley's total shareholding in the Companyis 4,711,806 ordinary shares, representing 13.6% of the current issued sharecapital of SMC. Following the above transfers Richard Young's total shareholding in the Companyis 1,691,514 ordinary shares, representing 4.9% of the current issued sharecapital of SMC. The shares referred to in the announcement are the issued ordinary shares of 0.5pence each in the Company. For further information please contact: SMC Group Plc Tel: 44 (0)20 7495 5335Stewart McColl Noble & Company Limited Tel: 44 (0)20 7763 2200Matthew Hall Bell Pottinger Tel: 44 (0)20 7861 3232David Rydell/Geoff Callow Appendix Notes to Editors SMC Group Plc is the holding company for a group of architects and designers.It has established expertise in a broad range of sectors, including residential,retail, industrial, workplace, transportation, leisure and education. The Grouphas national coverage throughout England, with offices in London, Warwick,Manchester, Leeds, Birmingham, Liverpool and Lancaster, and is engaged in arange of projects throughout the UK, in Eire and in parts of mainland Europe. The Company's core strategy is to create an architectural group with the scaleand expertise to access the most profitable schemes across a range of sectorsand geographical locations. The Group intends to focus on its organic growth,increasing its share of the UK market and securing larger, higher marginprojects. The Group plans to complement this organic growth withearnings-enhancing acquisitions in order to consolidate its geographic andsector coverage. On 5th September 2005 the Company announced its maiden interim results for thesix months ended 30th June 2005. SMC reported turnover of £5.4m (an increase of47% compared to the same period in 2004) and profit before tax of £1.1m (anincrease of 110% compared to the same period in 2004). The Company alsoannounced plans to introduce a maiden dividend in June 2006. This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange