Cancellation of Share Options

RNS Number : 1338Y

Baron Oil PLC

12 January 2022

 

12 January 2022

Baron Oil Plc

("Baron Oil", "Baron" or the "Company")

Cancellation of Share Options

Baron Oil (AIM: BOIL), the AIM-quoted oil and gas exploration company with projects in SE Asia, the UK and Latin America, announces the cancellation of 240 million share options granted on 26 May and 10 November 2020.

On 26 May 2020, the Company announced that it had established an Enterprise Management Incentive ("EMI") Scheme for the benefit of employees and had made an initial grant of 165 million share options on that date. A further grant of 75 million share options under the EMI Scheme was made on 10 November 2020 (together the "2020 Options"). Baron was notified by HMRC in August 2021 that HMRC was of the view that the 2020 Options were not considered valid for the purposes of the benefits of the EMI Scheme and an appeal was lodged on Baron's behalf. In the absence of a response from HMRC, Baron has recently withdrawn its appeal, thereby leaving the 240 million 2020 Options classified as unapproved share options.

Following the option grants made on 20 December 2021, the Directors and Employees EMI programme is now complete. The Company, and each of the relevant grantees, have therefore agreed that it is appropriate that the 2020 Options are cancelled and rescinded.

There are no current plans for any further share option grants.

The updated position regarding EMI share options granted to Directors and Employees is therefore as follows:

Option Holder	Date of Grant	Number	Date of grant	Number	Total EMI Options
Andrew Yeo, Chief Executive	22/07/2021*	250,000,000	20/12/2021**	125,000,000	375,000,000
Jon Ford, Technical Director	22/07/2021*	140,000,000	20/12/2021**	180,000,000	320,000,000
Geoff Barnes, Company Secretary	22/07/2021*	50,000,000	20/12/2021**	60,000,000	110,000,000

As a result of the cancellation of the 2020 Options, the total number of share options that have been granted to current Directors and Employees is 970,000,000 (805,000,000 EMI options plus 165,000,000 unapproved options held by Andrew Yeo, Chief Executive), which represents approximately 7.39% of the Company's fully diluted ordinary share capital.

The Company's entire option pool including those issued to a former Director and consultants to the Company, is now equivalent to 10.63% of the Company's fully diluted ordinary share capital***.

Notes

*  Exercise price of 0.007p

** Exercise price of 0.006p

*** Current number of ordinary shares in issue is 11,583,612,461; fully diluted ordinary share capital, which includes all warrants outstanding as well as share options, represents 13,123,237,462 Ordinary Shares.

For further information, please contact:

Baron Oil Plc		[phone]
Andy Yeo, Chief Executive
Allenby Capital Limited		[phone]
Nominated Adviser and Broker
Alex Brearley, Nick Harriss, Nick Athanas (Corporate Finance) Kelly Gardiner (Sales and Corporate Broking)
IFC Advisory Limited		[phone]
Financial PR and IR
Tim Metcalfe, Florence Chandler

 

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