Directors' Interests in Share Options

RNS Number : 8273G

Oxford Biomedica PLC

12 June 2013

 

For immediate release

12 June 2013

OXFORD BIOMEDICA plc

Directors' Interests in Share Options

Oxford, UK - 12 June 2013:Oxford BioMedica plc ("Oxford BioMedica" or "the Company") (LSE:OXB), the leading gene-based biopharmaceutical company, today announced that the following grants under the Oxford BioMedica Long Term Incentive Plan (LTIP) were made to three Directors on 11 June 2013:

	LTIP: number of shares granted	Total shares over which options are held (note 1)	Percentage of issued shares under option
John Dawson	5,577,465	16,573,465	1.17%
Peter Nolan	2,933,493	8,199,493	0.58%
Tim Watts	3,380,282	9,380,282	0.66%

Notes:

1. The total shares over which options are held including the grants described.

The grants are nominal cost options and are subject to a three year holding period. They are exercisable from the third anniversary of the grant, subject to the satisfaction of a performance condition.

The performance condition is Absolute Total Shareholder Return (TSR) as measured by the growth in share price over a 3 year period as the Company does not anticipate making any dividend payments over the performance period.  Accordingly, vesting has been linked directly to share price targets.  The grants will only vest if share price targets as defined in the table below are achieved over the period of the award. By rewarding growth in share price, the plan will ensure that Directors will only benefit if significant returns are made to shareholders through share price appreciation. The vesting schedule is as follows:

Share price target	% of award vesting
Below 5.0p	0%
At 5.0p*	25% vesting
At 7.5p*	100% vesting

*Straight line vesting between these points

The share price at the assessment date will be the average of the closing share prices over the preceding 3 months.

Although no grant can be exercised until the end of the three year vesting period, Directors will be able to "bank" a fraction of the appropriate vesting percentage on each anniversary of the date of grant, should the target have been met at those dates. This will be limited to 25% of the potential vesting amount after one year, 50% after two years and 100% after three years. Banked grants will not actually vest until the third anniversary of grant. The targets will be adjusted in the event of any dilution of the share capital to reflect the returns achieved by investors. 

The Company also announces that, to assist in retention of Executive Directors and other senior managers it is taking advantage of the Government's tax advantaged Enterprise Management Incentive (EMI) scheme. There is no disadvantage to the Company or shareholders from the EMI scheme and the Company has therefore adopted an EMI sub-plan within the LTIP.  The grants announced above are EMI options.

The Company has decided that, for the Company and employees to benefit fully from the EMI scheme, the LTIP grants granted to Directors and other senior managers on 30 June 2012 should be cancelled and re-granted under the EMI sub-plan. Accordingly, the grants made on that date to John Dawson over 6,600,000 shares, Peter Nolan over 3,480,000 shares and Tim Watts over 6,000,000 shares have been cancelled with a new EMI option granted to each Director over the same number of shares as was subject to his cancelled grant.  There are no changes to the performance conditions specified in the announcement made on 2 July 2012.

Tim Watts

Company Secretary,

Oxford BioMedica plc

12 June 2013

Oxford BioMedica plc

Oxford BioMedica plc (LSE: OXB) is a biopharmaceutical company developing innovative gene-based medicines and therapeutic vaccines that aim to improve the lives of patients with high unmet medical needs. The Company's technology platform includes a highly efficient LentiVector^® gene delivery system, which has specific advantages for targeting diseases of the central nervous system and the eye; and a unique tumour antigen (5T4), which is an ideal target for anti-cancer therapy. Through in-house and collaborative research, Oxford BioMedica has a broad pipeline with current partners and licensees including Sanofi, Pfizer, Novartis, GlaxoSmithKline, MolMed, Sigma-Aldrich, Biogen Idec, Emergent BioSolutions, ImaginAb and Immune Design Corp. Further information is available at www.oxfordbiomedica.co.uk and www.oxbsolutions.co.uk.

 

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