Directors Dealings

RNS Number : 6954A

Avacta Group PLC

24 February 2014

 

24 February 2014

Avacta Group plc

("Avacta" or the "Group")

Directors' Dealings

The Group announces the following changes to the equity incentives of its Non-Executive Chairman, Trevor Nicholls, and its Chief Operating Officer, Craig Slater.

Trevor Nicholls

On his appointment to the Board of Avacta on 2 August 2013, Dr Nicholls was awarded options over 5,454,545 ordinary shares of 0.1p each in the Group ("Ordinary Shares"). In order to pursue best corporate governance practice, the Avacta Board has agreed with Dr Nicholls that 3,500,000 of those options should vest conditional upon Dr Nicholls exercising those options immediately and conditional upon it being agreed by Dr Nicholls that the balance of 1,954,545 options over Ordinary Shares be cancelled with immediate effect.  Dr Nicholls has agreed to that conditionality and therefore the options over 3,500,000 Ordinary Shares have vested and Dr Nicholls has exercised his option over those Ordinary Shares. 

The exercise price of each option is 0.55 pence per share and, following exercise, Dr Nicholls is now interested in a total of 3,500,000 ordinary shares of 0.1p each in the Group, representing approximately 0.1% of the Group's issued share capital.

Dr Nicholls no longer holds any options over ordinary shares in Avacta.

Application will be made for the 3,500,000 new Ordinary Shares to be admitted to trading on AIM and dealings are expected to commence on 28 February 2014.

The total number of Ordinary Shares in issue following the above issue will be 4,026,051,956 each with voting rights.  No Ordinary Shares are held in Treasury.

The above figure of 4,026,051,956 shares may be used by shareholders 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 Group under the FCA's Disclosure and Transparency Rules.

Craig Slater

On 21 February 2014, Mr Slater was granted options over 20,000,000 Ordinary Shares pursuant to the Avacta Group Enterprise Management Incentive ("EMI") Scheme.  The option exercise price is 1.18p per share and the options vest as follows:

-    5,000,000 options over Ordinary Shares vest on 23 December 2014

-    5,000,000 options over Ordinary Shares vest on 23 December 2015

-    5,000,000 options over Ordinary Shares vest on 23 December 2016

-    5,000,000 options over Ordinary Shares vest on 23 December 2017

In addition, on 21 February 2014 Mr Slater purchased an interest in 34,082,086 existing Ordinary Shares at a price of 1% of 1.18 pence per share, in accordance with the terms of the Avacta Joint Share Ownership Plan (the "Joint Share Ownership Plan") established on 9 January 2012.  This interest is joint with Avacta Group Trustee Limited as trustee for the Avacta Group Employee's Share Trust under the Joint Share Ownership Plan. Following this purchase, Mr Slater has an interest in 34,082,086 Ordinary shares, representing approximately 0.8% of the Group's issued share capital.

Enquiries:

Avacta Group plc		Tel:  [phone]
Alastair Smith, Chief Executive Officer		www.avacta.com
Tim Sykes, Chief Financial Officer
Numis Securities Limited		Tel:  [phone]
Michael Meade / Freddie Barnfield - Nominated Adviser		www.numiscorp.com
James Black - Corporate Broking
Walbrook PR Ltd	Tel: [phone] or                       [e-mail]
Anna Dunphy	Mob: [phone]
Lianne Cawthorne	Mob: [phone]

About Avacta Group plc - www.avacta.com

Avacta Group plc is a global provider of innovative technologies, consumables and reagents for the life science markets, from drug discovery to diagnostics. Avacta operates through three divisions:

Avacta Analytical www.avactaanalytical.com	High throughput analysis instrument, Optim, to help reduce the cost and risk of drug development.
Avacta Animal Health www.avactaanimalhealth.com	Veterinary diagnostics reference laboratory, diagnostic kits and newly launched in-clinic blood analyser, Sensipod.
Avacta Life Sciences www.avactalifesciences.com	Novel non-antibody affinity reagents called Affimers, with a wide range of Life Science applications in diagnostics, drug and biomarker discover and biotech research and development.

Avacta joined AIM in August 2006 and is based in Wetherby, England.

 

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