Grant and Cancellation of Options; PDMR Dealings

Cornerstone FS PLC

17 November 2023

 

17 November 2023

Cornerstone FS plc

("Cornerstone" or "the Company" or "the Group")

Grant and Cancellation of Options; PDMR Dealings

Cornerstone FS plc (AIM: CSFS), a foreign exchange and payments solutions company offering multi-currency accounts to businesses and individuals through its proprietary technology platform, announces the grant of options over ordinary shares of 1 penny each in the Company ("Ordinary Shares") and the cancellation of certain existing options over Ordinary Shares. This includes the grant of options to, and cancellation of options held by, Executive Directors and PDMRs of the Company.

Grant of Options

The Company has granted, on 16 November 2023 (the "Grant Date"), a total of 870,000 options over Ordinary Shares of the Company ("Options") to certain employees including an Executive Director and two PDMRs of the Company under the Company's Enterprise Management Incentive ("EMI") Scheme. Options over a total of 540,000 shares have been granted to an Executive Director and PDMRs as follows: 

Name	Role	Number of Options granted
William Newton	Chief Information Officer (Executive Director)	240,000
Arindam Ray	Chief Technology Officer (PDMR)	120,000
Joshua Best	Head of Compliance and MLRO (PDMR)	180,000

The Options vest in three equal tranches on the first, second and third anniversaries of the Grant Date and are exercisable at a price of 12 pence per share, representing the closing price of the Company's Ordinary Shares on AIM on 15 November 2023, being the day prior to the Grant Date. The Options are subject to the individual remaining an employee of the Company. Leavers may exercise vested Options within 90 days of cessation of employment. All Options expire five years after the Grant Date.

Cancellation of Options

The Company has, on 16 November 2023, cancelled the following options over Ordinary Shares held by an Executive Director and a PDMR as follows (with the holders of the options agreeing to their cancellation with immediate effect):

Name	Role	Number of options cancelled	Number of options held following the cancellation of options	Exercise price of options held
Judy Happe	Chief Financial Officer (Executive Director)	404,660	550,000	10.0p
Jordanna Curtis	Chief Operating Officer (PDMR)	114,755	200,000	10.0p

This cancellation of options, for nil consideration, follows grants of options to the above-named Executive Director and PDMR as disclosed in the Company's announcement of 16 January 2023.

Following the above grants and cancellations of options, the Company now has options outstanding over a total of 4,857,736 Ordinary Shares, representing 8.5% of the current issued share capital of the Company.

Enquiries 

Cornerstone FS plc	[phone]
James Hickman, Chief Executive Officer  Judy Happe, Chief Financial Officer
SPARK Advisory Partners Limited (Nomad)	[phone]
Mark Brady, Adam Dawes
Shore Capital (Broker)	[phone]
Daniel Bush, Tom Knibbs (Corporate Advisory) Guy Wiehahn (Corporate Broking)
Gracechurch Group (Financial PR)	[phone]
Harry Chathli, Claire Norbury

About Cornerstone FS plc

Cornerstone FS plc (AIM: CSFS) is a foreign exchange and payments company offering multi-currency accounts and payment solutions to businesses and individuals. Headquartered in the City of London, Cornerstone combines a proprietary technology platform with a high level of personalised service to support clients with payments in over 150 countries in 58 currencies. With a track record of over 12 years, Cornerstone has the expertise, experience and expanding global partner network to be able to execute complex cross-border payments. It is fully regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority as an Electronic Money Institution. www.cornerstonefs.com  

Notification and public disclosure of transactions by persons discharging managerial responsibilities and persons closely associated with them.

1	Details of the person discharging managerial responsibilities/person closely associated
a)	Name	William Newton
2	Reason for the notification
a)	Position/status	Chief Information Officer
b)	Initial notification/amendment	Initial Notification
3	Details of the issuer, emission allowance market participant, auction platform, auctioneer or auction monitor
a)	Name	Cornerstone FS plc
b)	LEI	213800O4IL2RXZ2BZ956
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	Options over ordinary shares of 1 penny each
	Identification code	GB00BNG7CD28
b)	Nature of the transaction	Grant of options
c)	Price(s) and volume(s)
			Price(s)	Volume(s)
			12 pence	240,000
d)	Aggregated information
	- Aggregated volume	N/A
	- Price	N/A
e)	Date of the transaction	16 November 2023
f)	Place of the transaction	Off market

1	Details of the person discharging managerial responsibilities/person closely associated
a)	Name	Arindam Ray
2	Reason for the notification
a)	Position/status	Chief Technology Officer
b)	Initial notification/amendment	Initial Notification
3	Details of the issuer, emission allowance market participant, auction platform, auctioneer or auction monitor
a)	Name	Cornerstone FS plc
b)	LEI	213800O4IL2RXZ2BZ956
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	Options over ordinary shares of 1 penny each
	Identification code	GB00BNG7CD28
b)	Nature of the transaction	Grant of options
c)	Price(s) and volume(s)
			Price(s)	Volume(s)
			12 pence	120,000
d)	Aggregated information
	- Aggregated volume	N/A
	- Price	N/A
e)	Date of the transaction	16 November 2023
f)	Place of the transaction	Off market

1	Details of the person discharging managerial responsibilities/person closely associated
a)	Name	Joshua Best
2	Reason for the notification
a)	Position/status	Head of Compliance and MLRO
b)	Initial notification/amendment	Initial Notification
3	Details of the issuer, emission allowance market participant, auction platform, auctioneer or auction monitor
a)	Name	Cornerstone FS plc
b)	LEI	213800O4IL2RXZ2BZ956
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	Options over ordinary shares of 1 penny each
	Identification code	GB00BNG7CD28
b)	Nature of the transaction	Grant of options
c)	Price(s) and volume(s)
			Price(s)	Volume(s)
			12 pence	180,000
d)	Aggregated information
	- Aggregated volume	N/A
	- Price	N/A
e)	Date of the transaction	16 November 2023
f)	Place of the transaction	Off market

1	Details of the person discharging managerial responsibilities/person closely associated
a)	Name	Judy Happe
2	Reason for the notification
a)	Position/status	Chief Financial Officer
b)	Initial notification/amendment	Initial Notification
3	Details of the issuer, emission allowance market participant, auction platform, auctioneer or auction monitor
a)	Name	Cornerstone FS plc
b)	LEI	213800O4IL2RXZ2BZ956
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	Options over ordinary shares of 1 penny each
	Identification code	GB00BNG7CD28
b)	Nature of the transaction	Cancellation of options
c)	Price(s) and volume(s)
			Price(s)	Volume(s)
			50.0 pence	276,803
			36.2 pence	127,857
d)	Aggregated information
	- Aggregated volume	404,660
	- Price	45.6 pence
e)	Date of the transaction	16 November 2023
f)	Place of the transaction	Off market

1	Details of the person discharging managerial responsibilities/person closely associated
a)	Name	Jordanna Curtis
2	Reason for the notification
a)	Position/status	Chief Operating Officer
b)	Initial notification/amendment	Initial Notification
3	Details of the issuer, emission allowance market participant, auction platform, auctioneer or auction monitor
a)	Name	Cornerstone FS plc
b)	LEI	213800O4IL2RXZ2BZ956
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	Options over ordinary shares of 1 penny each
	Identification code	GB00BNG7CD28
b)	Nature of the transaction	Cancellation of options
c)	Price(s) and volume(s)
			Price(s)	Volume(s)
			61.0 pence	114,755
d)	Aggregated information
	- Aggregated volume	N/A
	- Price	N/A
e)	Date of the transaction	16 November 2023
f)	Place of the transaction	Off market

 

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