Issue of Equity

RNS Number : 4093Y

Benchmark Holdings PLC

23 January 2014

 



                                                                                                                                                                      23^rd January 2014

Benchmark Holdings plc

 ("Benchmark" or the "Company" or the "Group")

Issue of Equity

Pursuant to the Benchmark Share Incentive Plan ("SIP") as further described in the Company's admission document dated 12 December 2013, the Company has today received final applications from certain employees and directors of the Group to acquire an aggregate of 560,345 ordinary shares of 0.1 pence each (the "SIP Shares").  The SIP Shares consist of shares purchased at 64p per share up to a maximum amount of £1,500 each by eligible employees ("Partnership Shares"), as well as free matching shares granted subject to certain conditions of the SIP ("Matching Shares").

The directors' resulting interests are as follows:

	Existing ordinary shares held	Partnership Shares purchased at 64p per share	Matching Shares granted	New holding	% of enlarged issued share capital
Malcom Pye (CEO)	15,141,000	2,343	2,343	15,456,686	11.28%
Roland Bonney (COO)	15,141,000	2,343	2,343	15,456,686	11.28%
Mark Plampin (CFO)	397,000	2,343	2,343	401,686	0.29%

Accordingly, the Company has applied for 560,345 ordinary shares to be admitted to trading on AIM and it is expected that admission will occur at 8.00 am on 29^th January 2014 ("Admission").

Following Admission, the Group's enlarged share capital will consist of 136,977,095 ordinary shares of 0.1 pence each. This figure 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 Company under the Disclosure and Transparency Rules.

-Ends-

For further information, please contact:
Benchmark Holdings plc
Amy Firth, Head of Communications	Tel: [phone]
Cenkos Securities, Nominated Adviser and Broker	Tel: [phone]
Ivonne Cantu
Tavistock Communications	Tel: [phone]
Catriona Valentine / Keeley Clarke / Niall Walsh

For further information on Benchmark please visit www.benchmarkplc.com.

Notes to Editors:

Founded in 2000, Benchmark represents a new model in sustainable business development. Over the last decade it has built a profitable group of companies on the economics of a sustainable food chain. The Company is growing in response to a rapidly increasing demand for sustainable food chains, and in particular for seafood, from both mature and emerging markets. As demand can no longer be met by declining wild resources, it will necessitate the growth of sustainable farming systems around the world.

Benchmark is an ethical company with an explicit policy based on the "3Es" definition of a sustainable business - ethics, environment and economics - which guides its strategy and operations.

The Group operates internationally with offices in the UK, Ireland, Norway, USA, Brazil, China and Thailand and, as at 20 January 2014, employed 188 people, approximately half of whom are educated to degree, professional specialist or PhD level.

Animal Health

Fish Vet Group and Benchmark Vaccines form the group's largest division, Animal Health, focusing on aquaculture health. The Group is exposed to the growth trends and drivers in aquaculture and in animal health, which are large markets. Aquaculture accounted for US$119 billion in 2010, and it grew at an average annual rate of 8.8% between 1980 and 2010. Since then the aquaculture market has grown at an average annual rate of 6.3% (source: FAO - The State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture 2012).

Technical Publishing

With 13 online publications in three languages, the Group's technical publishing business, 5M, sits primarily within the agriculture segment of the STM (science, technical and medical) publishing market. The STM market was estimated in 2011 as a US$26 billion market with a projected growth from 2013-2014 estimated at 5.3% and CAGR from 2009-2014 of 5.0% (source: Outsell 2011).

Sustainability Division

This division is made up of companies working in collaboration with its customers on research and development of sustainable food and farming business management and technologies. Verdantix estimates the global sustainability consulting market to be US$13.8 billion, of which US$1.2 billion is categorised as strategic and management consulting services and US$12.6 billion relates to technical sustainability consulting.  trie^SM operates in the sustainability, strategic and management consulting sector while FAI and RL Consulting operate in the technical sustainability consulting space. The overall sustainability consulting market is estimated to be growing at 4-5% per annum, and this growth is projected to continue accelerating as the developed economies emerge from the global recession. Allan Environmental operates in the environmental consulting sector, which is estimated to be a US$26.5 billion global market and is forecast to reach US$31.4 billion by 2016 (source: researchandmarkets.com).

 

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