23 Mar 2015 14:49
Date: | 23 March 2015 |
On behalf of: | Finsbury Food Group plc ('Finsbury', 'the Company' or 'the Group') |
For immediate release | |
Finsbury Food Group plc
Share Awards, Exercise of Options and Employee Benefit Trust Purchase
Finsbury Food Group plc (AIM: FIF), a leading UK speciality bakery manufacturer of cake, bread and morning goods for both the retail and foodservice channels, announces that the Remuneration Committee of the Company has awarded ordinary shares of one pence each ("Ordinary Shares") to both John Duffy, Chief Executive, and Stephen Boyd, Finance Director, following the successful completion of the acquisition of Fletchers Group. Details of the awards and each director's resultant beneficial holding are set out below:
| Number of new Ordinary Shares granted | Resulting shareholding | Holding as a percentage of Company's enlarged issued share capital |
John Duffy | 116,100 | 2,111,762 | 1.65% |
Stephen Boyd | 116,100 | 906,629 | 0.71% |
Both Mr Duffy and Mr Boyd have requested that the new Ordinary Shares be allotted to their respective wives.
The Company has received notification from Mr Duffy, that he has today transferred for nil value 1,984,881 Ordinary Shares to his wife. Mr Duffy's total beneficial and non-beneficial interest in the Company remains unchanged from the total holding set out above following this transfer.
The Company has appointed advisors to assist it in the development and implementation of a new Long Term Incentive Plan (LTIP) to be adopted by the Company. The development of the LTIP is well advanced and a further announcement will be made once the Plan has been approved by the Remuneration Committee.
The Company has also today received notification in relation to the exercise of options over 925,088 Ordinary Shares. The Company will apply for 1,157,288 new Ordinary Shares to be admitted to trading on AIM. Admission of the 1,157,288 new Ordinary Shares is expected to occur on 27 March 2015.
Following Admission of the above Ordinary Shares, the Company's issued share capital will consist of 128,005,197 Ordinary Shares, all with voting rights. No Ordinary Shares are currently held in Treasury. The total number of current voting rights in the Company will therefore be 128,005,197 following Admission.
The above figure (128,005,197 Ordinary Shares) may be used by shareholders as the denominator for the calculation by which they will determine if they are required to notify their interest in, or a change in their interest in, the Company.
Employee Benefit Trust Purchase
The Company was notified today by the Trustees of The Finsbury Food Group plc Employee Share Ownership Plan Trust (the "EBT"), that on 23 March 2015 the EBT purchased 588,243 Ordinary Shares at 65.5 pence per Ordinary Share. The Company has provided a loan to the EBT for the purpose of acquiring the Ordinary Shares. Following this transaction, the EBT is interested in 939,972 Ordinary Shares, representing 0.73 per cent of the Company's total issued share capital.
The EBT is a discretionary trust for the benefit of employees of the Company and its subsidiaries, who have been granted share options. The Executive Directors of the Company are included in the class of potential beneficiaries of the EBT and are deemed to be interested in those shares and the dealings thereof.
- ENDS -
For further information: |
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Finsbury Food Group plc | www.finsburyfoods.co.uk |
John Duffy (Chief Executive) | 029 20 357 500 |
Stephen Boyd (Finance Director) |
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Cenkos Securities plc |
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Bobbie Hilliam (Corporate Finance) |
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Oliver Baxendale (Sales) |
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Redleaf PR | finsbury@redleafpr.com |
Rebecca Sanders-Hewett | 020 7382 4730 |
Jenny Bahr |
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Publication quality photographs are available via Redleaf Polhill on the numbers shown above
Notes to Editors:
▪ Finsbury Food Group Plc (AIM: FIF) is a leading UK manufacturer of cake and bread bakery goods, supplying a broad range of blue chip customers within both the Grocery retail and 'out of home eating' foodservice sectors including major multiples and leading foodservice providers.
▪ Following the acquisition of the Fletchers Group of bakeries, the Company is one of the largest speciality bakery groups in the UK with initial annualised sale of over £270m.
▪ The Company's bakery product range is comprehensive and includes:
‒ Large premium and celebration cakes;
‒ Small snacking cake formats such as cake slices and bites.
‒ Artisan, healthy lifestyle and organic breads through to rolls, muffins (sweet and savoury) and morning pastries, all of which are available both fresh and frozen dependent on customer channel requirements.
▪ The Company is now the second largest manufacturer of ambient packaged cake (excluding In Store Bakery) in the UK, a market valued at £926m (Source Symphony IRI 52 w/e 6th December 2014). The annual bread and morning goods market has a value in excess of £3.5 billion (source Kantar Worldpanel). The UK foodservice bakery sector is worth approximately £900 million per annum, 70 per cent of which is in morning goods.
▪ The Company comprises a UK Bakery division and an Overseas division:
‒ UK Bakery has manufacturing sites in Cardiff, Hamilton, Salisbury, Sheffield, London and Manchester.
‒ The overseas sector comprise the Company's 50% owned Company Lightbody Stretz Ltd supplies and distributes the Group's UK manufactured products and third party products primarily to Europe.