Eckoh Technologies Regulatory News (ECK)

7 December 2018

Eckoh plc

("Eckoh" or the "Company")

PDMR and Eckoh EBT Share Dealings

Exercise of options and PDMR dealing

Eckoh announces that it has issued 500,000 new ordinary shares in the capital of the Company (the "New Ordinary Shares") following an exercise of share options by employees, including 100,000 New Ordinary Shares by Ed Johnson, Chief Operating Officer of Eckoh UK and a PDMR of the Company.

The options being exercised were granted under the 2012 Eckoh Long Term Incentive Plan and the number of New Ordinary Shares that ultimately vested was subject to the satisfaction of share price targets which were comfortably exceeded well ahead of the earliest date of exercise, being 1 January 2016.

Application will be made to the London Stock Exchange for the New Ordinary Shares to be admitted to trading on AIM, with dealings expected to commence on 13 December 2018 ("Admission").

Following Admission, the Company will have a total of 253,588,520 Ordinary Shares in issue. Of these Ordinary Shares, 362,022 are held in treasury and as a result, the Ordinary Shares in issue carrying voting rights will be 253,226,498. Shareholders may use this figure of 253,226,498 Ordinary Shares as the denominator for the calculations by which they will determine if they are required to notify their interest in, or a change to their interest in, the share capital of the Company under the FCA's Disclosure Guidance and Transparency Rules.

Subsequent to their issue, Eckoh was notified by Ed Johnson that his 100,000 New Ordinary Shares were sold on 6 December 2018 at a price of 37.25p per share (the "Sale").

Purchase of shares by Eckoh EBT

Further, the Company announces that on 6 December 2018, Eckoh's employee benefit trust ("EBT"), purchased 300,816 Ordinary Shares in the capital of the Company (the "Shares") at a price of 37.25p per Share, to be held on trust for the purpose of satisfying future awards to beneficiaries of the Company's share incentive plan.

As Nik Philpot (CEO) and Chrissie Herbert (CFO) are trustees and administrators of the EBT, they are therefore treated as having an interest in the Shares. In addition, certain PDMRs of the Company, including Chrissie Herbert and Ed Johnson, are potential beneficiaries of the SIP and therefore also treated as having an interest in the Shares.

Following settlement of the above purchase of Shares, the EBT will hold a total of 1,374,029 ordinary shares, equivalent to 0.54 per cent. of the Ordinary Share capital of Eckoh, as enlarged by the issue of the New Shares.

About Eckoh plc

Eckoh is a global provider of secure payment products and customer contact solutions, supporting an international client base from its offices in the UK, US and Australia.

Our secure payments products, which can be hosted in the cloud or deployed on the client's site, removes sensitive personal and payment data from contact centres and IT environments. The products offer merchants a simple and effective way to reduce the risk of fraud, secure sensitive data and become compliant with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards ("PCI DSS") as well as wider data security regulations. Eckoh has been a PCI DSS Level One accredited Service Provider since 2010. 

Eckoh's customer contact solutions enable enquiries to be answered through multiple channels, allowing organisations to increase efficiency, lower operational costs and provide a true omni-channel experience to their customers. We also assist organisations to transform the way that they engage with their customers by providing support and transition services as they implement our innovative customer contact solutions.

Our large portfolio of clients come from a broad range of vertical markets and includes government departments, telecoms providers, retailers, utility providers and financial services organisations.