12 Apr 2016 12:15
12 April 2016
Diurnal Group plc
("Diurnal" or the "Company")
Grants of share options and award of conditional shares
Diurnal Group plc (AIM: DNL), the specialty pharmaceutical company targeting patient needs in chronic endocrine (hormonal) diseases, announces the following grants of share options and award of conditional shares on 12 April 2016. The grants and award were described in detail in the Company's AIM Admission Document, published on 21 December 2015.
Exchange of existing share option agreements
In September 2015, Diurnal Limited granted share options to a number of individuals, including four of its directors; Peter Allen, Martin Whitaker, Ian Ardill and Richard Ross. It was intended that following admission to trading on AIM, existing options over shares in the capital of Diurnal Limited would be exchanged for replacement options over the capital of Diurnal Group plc. The share capital reorganisation of Diurnal Group plc involved the issue of 500 Diurnal Group plc ordinary shares for every one Diurnal Limited ordinary share. The share options will vest in thirds on each of the first, second and third anniversaries of grant (11 September 2015 for Martin Whitaker and Ian Ardill and 23 September 2015 for Peter Allen and Richard Ross) at exercise prices of £0.4377 (Martin Whitaker and Ian Ardill) and £0.002 (Peter Allen and Richard Ross) per share.
Grant of share options to Peter Allen
To deliver terms agreed in connection with his recruitment, Peter Allen has been granted share options over 104,421 ordinary shares of £0.05 each at an exercise price of £0.002 per share. The share options will vest in thirds on each of the first, second and third anniversaries of 24 December 2015, being the date of admission to trading on AIM. There are no other performance criteria.
Award of conditional shares to John Goddard
To deliver terms agreed in connection with his recruitment, John Goddard has been awarded 32,374 ordinary shares of £0.05 each for which Mr Goddard will pay the nominal value for each share. The award of shares will vest in thirds after 18, 24 and 36 months from 24 December 2015, being the date of admission to AIM. There are no other performance criteria.
The numbers of options and share awards held by the directors are as follows:
Name | Position | Number of share options exchanged prior to admission to AIM | Number of share options exchanged | Number of share options granted | Total number of share options now held | Number of conditional shares awarded | Total number of conditional shares now held |
Peter Allen | Non-executive Chairman | 0 | 69,000 | 104,421 | 173,421 | 0 | 0 |
Martin Whitaker | CEO | 424,500 | 495,000 | 0 | 919,500 | 0 | 0 |
Ian Ardill | CFO | 0 | 330,000 | 0 | 330,000 | 0 | 0 |
Richard Ross | CSO | 1,019,000 | 330,000 | 0 | 1,349,000 | 0 | 0 |
John Goddard | Non-executive Director | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 32,374 | 32,374 |
Total | 1,443,500 | 1,224,000 | 104,421 | 2,771,921 | 32,374 | 32,374 |
For further information, please visit www.diurnal.co.uk or contact: | |
Diurnal Group plc | +44 (0)20 3727 1000 |
Martin Whitaker, CEO | |
Ian Ardill, CFO | |
Numis Securities Ltd (Nominated Adviser) | +44 (0)20 7260 1000 |
Nominated Adviser: Michael Meade, Freddie Barnfield, Paul Gillam | |
Corporate Broking: James Black | |
FTI Consulting | +44 (0)20 3727 1000 |
Simon Conway | |
Victoria Foster Mitchell | |
Notes to Editors
About Diurnal
Diurnal is a clinical stage specialty pharmaceutical company targeting patient needs in chronic endocrine (hormonal) diseases which the Company believes are currently not satisfactorily met by existing treatments. It has identified a number of specialist endocrinology market opportunities in Europe and the US that are together estimated to be worth more than $11bn per annum.
On its admission to AIM in December 2015, the Company raised £30 million by way of a placing of new ordinary shares and a convertible loan. The new funds will accelerate the development of two leading product candidates which are in, or expected to commence shortly, Phase III clinical trials, targeting diseases of cortisol deficiency; Chronocort®, to be used for Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia ("CAH") in adults, and Infacort®, to be used for Adrenal Insufficiency ("AI"), including CAH in children. The lead product candidate, Infacort®, is anticipated to receive its first regulatory approval in Europe towards the end of 2017.
For further information about Diurnal, please visit www.diurnal.co.uk