Grant of Options

RNS Number : 8160N

Equals Group PLC

26 September 2019

 

Equals Group plc

("Equals", the "Group" or the "Company")

Grant of Options

Equals, the e-banking and payments group, today announces that it has granted 1,750,000 options over ordinary shares of 1 pence each in the capital of the Company ("New Options") to the following persons discharging managerial responsibilities ("PDMR's"):

Name	Position	New Options Granted	No. of options held prior to award	Total options held following grant
Ian Strafford-Taylor	Chief Executive Officer	750,000	4,268,000	5,018,000
Richard Cooper*	Group Finance Director	500,000	0	500,000
Ben Wynn	Chief Product and Marketing Officer	500,000	0	500,000

Appointment to the board of Equals effective from 14 October 2019.

The New Options give holders the right to subscribe for new ordinary shares of 1 pence each in the capital of the Company ("Ordinary Shares") at an exercise price of 101.1 pence per Ordinary Share. The options vest in 3 equal tranches after 1, 2 and 3 years from the date of grant subject to conditions relating to continued employment being satisfied. For Ian Strafford-Taylor and Ben Wynn, the date of grant is todays date whereas in the case of Richard Cooper this will be from 14^th October 2019, the date at which he takes up his position. 

The Remuneration Committee of the Company are also in the process of establishing a Long-Term Incentive Plan (the "LTIP") which will retain and motivate key senior executives over the Company's next phase of development. The Remuneration Committee intend to consult with major shareholders the principal terms of the LTIP ahead of formally approving the plan.

Finally, as set out above, before the issue of New Options Mr Strafford-Taylor held an interest in 4,268,000 options over Ordinary Shares ("Existing Options"). A summary of the Existing Options held by Mr Strafford-Taylor is set out below

No. of Existing Options	Exercise price	Date Granted	Date Expires
1,789,300	£0.36	22/07/2014	03/11/2019
1,535,750	£0.36	28/07/2014	03/11/2019
192,950	£0.22	22/07/2014	03/11/2019
750,000	£0.30	28/09/2016	27/09/2026

In addition, Dr Jules Bean, The Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of Equals Group, holds Existing Options as per the summary below

No. of Existing Options	Exercise price	Date Granted	Date Expires
200,000	£0.07	22/07/2014	03/11/2019
254,800	£0.22	22/07/2014	03/11/2019
400,000	£0.36	28/07/2014	03/11/2019
50,000	£0.30	28/09/2016	27/09/2026

3,518,000 Existing Options held by Mr Strafford-Taylor and 854,800 Existing Options held by Dr Bean expire on 03/11/2019. The Remuneration Committee has agreed to extend the expiry date of the total of 4,372,800 Existing Options to 03/11/2022.

The following disclosures are made in accordance with Article 19 of the EU Market Abuse Regulation 596/2014.

1	Details of the person discharging managerial responsibilities / person closely associated
a)	Name	Ian Strafford Taylor
2	Reason for the notification
a)	Position/status	Chief Executive Officer
b)	Initial notification /Amendment	Initial
3	Details of the issuer, emission allowance market participant, auction platform, auctioneer or auction monitor
a)	Name	Equals plc
b)	LEI	213800CPI5S2GYB3RI27
4	Details of the transaction(s): section to be repeated for (i) each type of instrument; (ii) each type of transaction; (iii) each date; and (iv) each place where transactions have been conducted
a)	Description of the financial instrument, type of instrument Identification code	Ordinary shares of 1p each ISIN:      GB00BLS0XX25
b)	Nature of the transaction	Grant of options over new ordinary shares at an exercise price of 101.1p per share
c)	Price(s) and volume(s)	Price(s) Volume(s) £Nil  750,000
d)	Aggregated information - Aggregated volume  - Price	N/A - single transaction
e)	Date of the transactions	26 September 2019
f)	Place of the transactions	Outside a trading venue

1	Details of the person discharging managerial responsibilities / person closely associated
a)	Name	Richard Cooper
2	Reason for the notification
a)	Position/status	Chief Financial Officer (appointment effective from 14 October 2019)
b)	Initial notification /Amendment	Initial
3	Details of the issuer, emission allowance market participant, auction platform, auctioneer or auction monitor
a)	Name	Equals plc
b)	LEI	213800CPI5S2GYB3RI27
4	Details of the transaction(s): section to be repeated for (i) each type of instrument; (ii) each type of transaction; (iii) each date; and (iv) each place where transactions have been conducted
a)	Description of the financial instrument, type of instrument Identification code	Ordinary shares of 1p each ISIN:      GB00BLS0XX25
b)	Nature of the transaction	Grant of options over new ordinary shares at an exercise price of 101.1p per share
c)	Price(s) and volume(s)	Price(s) Volume(s) £Nil  500,000
d)	Aggregated information - Aggregated volume  - Price	N/A - single transaction
e)	Date of the transactions	26 September 2019
f)	Place of the transactions	Outside a trading venue

1	Details of the person discharging managerial responsibilities / person closely associated
a)	Name	Ben Wynn
2	Reason for the notification
a)	Position/status	Chief Product and Marketing Officer
b)	Initial notification /Amendment	Initial
3	Details of the issuer, emission allowance market participant, auction platform, auctioneer or auction monitor
a)	Name	Equals plc
b)	LEI	213800CPI5S2GYB3RI27
4	Details of the transaction(s): section to be repeated for (i) each type of instrument; (ii) each type of transaction; (iii) each date; and (iv) each place where transactions have been conducted
a)	Description of the financial instrument, type of instrument Identification code	Ordinary shares of 1p each ISIN:      GB00BLS0XX25
b)	Nature of the transaction	Grant of options over new ordinary shares at an exercise price of 101.1p per share
c)	Price(s) and volume(s)	Price(s) Volume(s) £Nil  500,000
d)	Aggregated information - Aggregated volume  - Price	N/A - single transaction
e)	Date of the transactions	26 September 2019
f)	Place of the transactions	Outside a trading venue

Contact:

Equals Group plc Ian Strafford-Taylor, CEO	[phone]
Cenkos Securities plc Max Hartley/Callum Davidson Nick Searle	[phone]
Canaccord Genuity Bobbie Hilliam / David Tyrrell Alex Aylen	[phone]
Yellow Jersey                          Charles Goodwin Joe Burgess Annabel Atkins	[phone] [phone]

About Equals

Equals is a leading challenger brand in banking and payments that disintermediates the incumbent banks with a superior user experience and low-cost operating model. Our business enables personal and business customers to make easy, low-cost payments both domestically and in a broad range of currencies and across a range of products all via one integrated system. The Equals platform facilitates payments either direct to Bank Accounts or at 35 million merchants and over 1 million ATM's in a broad range of countries globally via Mobile apps, the Internet, SMS, wire transfer and MasterCard/VISA debit cards.

Equals provides money movement services to both personal and business customers through four channels: Currency Cards, Physical Currency, International Payments and Bank Accounts. The Currency Card and Physical Currency offerings facilitate multiple overseas payments at points of sale and ATM's whereas the International Payments channel supports wire transfer foreign exchange transactions direct to Bank Accounts. For Corporates, Equals has a market-leading business-expenses solution based around its corporate platform and prepaid card. This service can yield significant savings on a Corporate's expenses and procurement both domestically and overseas, through better controls and improved transparency. The platform also streamlines the downstream administrative processes and integrates into accounting software, thus saving costs. Equals offers retail and business bank accounts with all the functionality you would expect from a bank, namely faster payments, BACs, direct debits, international payments and a debit card.

 

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