Grant of SARs

27 Jan 2006 15:32

Desire Petroleum PLC27 January 2006 Desire Petroleum plc ("Desire" or "the Company") Grant of Share Appreciation Rights Desire announces the following grants of share appreciation rights ("SARs")relating to the Company's ordinary shares of 1 pence each ("Shares") to itsDirectors and the Company Secretary. Following the Company's 2005 Interim Report, in which it was stated that theCompany intended to replace its existing Unapproved Executive Share OptionScheme with a new incentive plan that would permit the grant of awards overShares up to 5% of the issued share capital of the Company, the Company on 18January 2006 adopted the new Desire Incentive Plan 2006 (the "Plan"). SARs are designed to deliver a net gain in Shares equal to the increase in theprice of a Share between grant and exercise. The number of Shares actuallyissued following exercise will therefore be less than the percentage of thecurrent issued share capital to which the grant relates as referred to below. On 26 January 2006, the Company granted awards of Share Appreciation Rightsunder the Plan ("SARs") over shares representing a total of 4% of the currentissued ordinary share capital of the Company, to the following Directors and theCompany Secretary: Awardees +----------------------+-----------------------+----------------------+| Name | Position | SARs || | |(Percentage of current|| | |issued share capital) || | | |+----------------------+-----------------------+----------------------+|Dr Colin Phipps |Chairman | 1.1 |+----------------------+-----------------------+----------------------+|Ian Duncan |Chief Executive | 1.1 || |Director | |+----------------------+-----------------------+----------------------+|Andrew Windham |Non-Executive Director | 0.4 |+----------------------+-----------------------+----------------------+|Lewis Clifton |Non-Executive Director | 0.4 |+----------------------+-----------------------+----------------------+|Stephen Phipps |Non-Executive Director | 0.4 |+----------------------+-----------------------+----------------------+|Edward Wisniewski |Non-Executive Director | 0.4 |+----------------------+-----------------------+----------------------+|Anna Neve |Company Secretary | 0.2 |+----------------------+-----------------------+----------------------+ Upon exercise of the SARs, the relevant Awardee will be issued with Shares witha market value at the date of exercise equivalent to the notional gain that theAwardee would have made, being the amount by which the aggregate market value ofthe number of Shares in respect of which the SAR is exercised exceeds theaggregate Base Price of that number of Shares. The Base Price of a SAR will be33.75 pence per Share (being the middle market quotation of a Share on thedealing day immediately preceding the date of grant). Accordingly, if the price of a Share at the date of exercise is 50 per cent.higher than the Base Price, then the number of Shares issued upon exercise of aSAR award of 1 per cent. of the current issued share capital of the Companywould equate to only 0.33 per cent. of the current issued share capital of theCompany. Likewise, a doubling of the Share price from the Base Price would result in theissue of Shares equal to 0.5 per cent. of the current issued share capital. The current issued share capital of Desire is 221,431,762 Shares. No further awards of SARs will be made to the above Awardees. No consideration is payable on the grant of a SAR. SARs granted under the Planwill become exercisable on 23 January 2009. This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange