Director/PDMR Shareholding

RNS Number : 0073I

Cairn Energy PLC

07 June 2011

 



FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                                                                   7 June 2011

CAIRN ENERGY PLC ("Cairn" or "the Company")

Interests of Directors / Persons Discharging Managerial Responsibility ("PDMRs")

in the Company's Shares

1.    Vesting of awards under the Company's Replacement Long Term Incentive Plan    

       ("Replacement LTIP")

At the Company's Extraordinary General Meeting held on 21 December 2009 shareholder approval was received for the conversion of the "Capricorn Unit Awards" previously made under the Company's Long Term Incentive Plan (2006) into awards over its ordinary shares of ⁸/₁₃ pence each ("Ordinary Shares").  These "Converted Awards" over Ordinary Shares were subsequently granted on 22 December 2009 under the rules of the Replacement LTIP.

Cairn announces that, on 6 June 2011, Converted Awards held by the Executive Directors and a PDMR vested in respect of a total of 4,132,350 Ordinary Shares in accordance with the rules of the Replacement LTIP.  Details of these vestings are as follows:-

Executive Director / PDMR	Number of Ordinary Shares originally subject to Converted Award	Number of Ordinary Shares that vested on 6 June 2011*
Sir Bill Gammell	546,291	726,567
Dr Mike Watts	597,507	794,684
Malcolm Thoms	341,432	454,104
Phil Tracy	341,432	454,104
Jann Brown	284,527	378,420
Simon Thomson	426,790	567,630
Richard Heaton	569,054	756,841

*On the basis that the Company's total shareholder return over the performance period applicable to these Converted Awards was (i) above the upper decile ranking in the specified comparator group; and (ii) in excess of 150%, the rules of the Replacement LTIP required a "multiplier" of 1.33 to be applied in determining the number of Ordinary Shares that vested.

Following the above vesting, a total of 2,131,639 Ordinary Shares acquired by the Executive Directors' / PDMR were sold on their behalf at a price of £4.2782 per Ordinary Share on 6 June 2011 in order to fund the tax and national insurance liabilities arising on vesting.  The balance of the Ordinary Shares acquired are subject to an extended holding period during which they will be held by the Company's Employees' Share Trust (the "Trust") as nominee for each of the individuals. This holding period (during which the Ordinary Shares cannot be sold and may be forfeited in certain specified circumstances) will normally expire on 9 January 2013. Details of these sales / withholdings are set out below:

Executive Director / PDMR	Number of Ordinary Shares acquired on vesting that were sold on 6 June 2011	Number of Ordinary Shares acquired on vesting that are subject to holding period
Sir Bill Gammell	374,794	351,773
Dr Mike Watts	409,931	384,753
Malcolm Thoms	234,246	219,858
Phil Tracy	234,246	219,858
Jann Brown	195,205	183,215
Simon Thomson	292,807	274,823
Richard Heaton	390,410	366,431

2.         Summary of current holdings of Executive Directors / PDMRs

Following this announcement, the Executive Directors' and PDMRs' beneficial interests in the Ordinary Shares of the Company are as follows:-

Executive Director / PDMR	Previous Ordinary Shares	Current Ordinary Shares*	% Issued Share Capital	Outstanding Awards under 2006 LTIP	Outstanding Awards under 2009 LTIP
				Cairn India Units	Ordinary Shares
Sir Bill Gammell	2,878,083	3,229,856	0.230	223,600	1,095,800
Dr Mike Watts	2,445,489	2,830,242	0.201	81,520	852,000
Malcolm Thoms	503,250	723,108	0.051	139,750	589,700
Phil Tracy	471,003	690,861	0.049	139,750	589,700
Jann Brown	456,430	639,645	0.045	116,460	744,100
Simon Thomson	601,028	875,851	0.062	58,230	702,000
Richard Heaton	788,028	1,154,459	0.082	0	489,800
Paul Mayland	9,395	9,395	0.001	0	121,212

*On the vesting of Converted Awards under the Replacement LTIP, the Ordinary Shares acquired by a participant are beneficially owned by him / her throughout the holding period.  As a result, the Ordinary Shares acquired by participants under the Replacement LTIP on 6 June 2011 (and not subsequently sold) have been included in the second column of the above table. 

 

END

 

 

RDSDKODDBBKDBAK