18 Jan 2016 17:54
18 January 2015
AIM: UNG
Universe Group PLC
("Universe" or the "Company")
Grant of Options
Universe (AIM:UNG.L), a leading developer and supplier of point of sale, payment and on-line loyalty systems announces that the Remuneration Committee has today approved the grant of three tranches of share options ("Options") to subscribe for ordinary shares of 1p each in the Company ("Shares"). These will be granted to executive directors ("Directors") and certain members of the senior management team of the Company.
Tranche 1
A total of 3,300,000 Options will be granted under Tranche 1 of which 1,000,000 Options will be issued to the senior management team and 2,300,000 Options will be issued to Directors.
These Options will have an exercise price of 9.0p and may be exercised only if the Company's share price is at or above an average of 13.5 pence per share for the four week period following the announcement of the Company's results for the year ending 31 December 2018.
Tranche 2
A further 3,300,000 Options will be conditionally granted to Directors under Tranche 2, These Options will also have an exercise price of 9.0p and may be exercised only if the Company's share price is at or above an average of 21p for the four week period following the announcement of the Company's results for the year ending 31 December 2018. The grant of these Options is conditional on the individual Directors making market purchases of Shares to the value of a percentage of their gross annual salary before the start of the close period preceding the announcement of the Interim results to 30 June 2016.
Tranche 3
A further 3,300,000 Options will be conditionally granted to Directors under Tranche 3. These Options will have an exercise price of 9.0p and may be exercised only if the Company's share price is at or above an average of 32p for the four week period following the announcement of the Company's results for the year ending 31 December 2018. The grant of these Options is conditional on individual Directors making market purchases of Shares to a value of a percentage of their gross cash bonus for the financial years ending 31 December 2016, 2017 and 2018 within one month of such bonuses becoming payable.
All Options are subject to change of control provisions and expire on the tenth anniversary of grant.
Following the grants of these options the Directors will have the following options:
Director | Options to be granted | Scheme granted under: | Vesting period | Total Options |
Jeremy Lewis | - | EMI Share Option Scheme | - | 3,440,000 |
Jeremy Lewis | 5,032,000 | Unapproved Share Option Scheme | 3 years | 7,236,500 |
Robert Smeeton | - | EMI Share Option Scheme | - | 4,428,500 |
Robert Smeeton | 1,934,000 | Unapproved Share Option Scheme | 3 years | 1,934,000 |
Baljit Tank | 1,934,000 | EMI Share Option Scheme | 3 years | 1,934,000 |
Following the grants, a total of 26,265,500 Options (representing approximately 11.35 per cent. of the Company's enlarged issued share capital) will remain outstanding.
For further information:
Universe Group plc Robert Goddard, Chairman Jeremy Lewis, CEO | T: +44 2380 689 510 |
finnCap Stuart Andrews (corporate finance) Tony Quirke (corporate broking)
| T: +44 20 7220 0500 |
KTZ Communications Katie Tzouliadis | T: +44 20 3178 6378 |
About Universe Group plc
Universe provides some of the world's leading retailers with point of sale, payment and loyalty solutions. The Group's solutions are based on its own proprietary software and are offered out of the Cloud on a software as a service model with its data centres processing in excess of 3 billion transactions every year. For further information, please see www.universeplc.com.