Director/PDMR Dealing - Grant of Options

Hotel Chocolat Group PLC

05 December 2023

 

5 December 2023

Hotel Chocolat Group plc

("Hotel Chocolat", the "Company" or the "Group")

Director/PDMR Dealing - Grant of Options

The Company announces that on 4 December 2023 it granted an option over 416,667 ordinary shares of 0.1p in the Company ("Ordinary Shares") that it was contractually committed to grant to Chief Financial Officer, Jon Akehurst, who is a director and PDMR of the Company (the "Option").  The Option was granted pursuant to the Hotel Chocolat Group plc 2016 Long Term Incentive Plan (the "Plan").

In the normal course, the Option would have been granted following publication of the Group's FY2023 preliminary results.  However, the Company was in a closed period at that time due to the existence of inside information about the recommended cash acquisition of the Company by Hive Bidco, Inc, which was announced on 16 November 2023.  Accordingly, as agreed with Hive Bidco, Inc., the award of the Option to the Chief Financial Officer, together with the award of Options over a further 152,000 Ordinary Shares to other senior managers who were internally promoted or recruited into the Group in recent months, has now been made following that announcement.

The Option has been granted subject to the same performance conditions as apply to the 2021 LTIP awards described in the Company's Annual Report and Accounts 2023 but, subject to the scheme of arrangement by which the proposed acquisition of the Company will be effected becoming unconditional, will vest and become exercisable in full at that time. 

The Option has an exercise price of 0.1 pence per Ordinary Share and is subject to the Rules of the Plan.

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	Jonathan Akehurst
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	Hotel Chocolat Group plc
b)	LEI	213800B4D3J15PZHVY29
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	Option over Ordinary shares of 0.1 pence each ISIN: GB00BYZC3B04
b)	Nature of the transaction	Grant of option pursuant to the Hotel Chocolat Group plc 2016 Long Term Incentive Plan
c)	Price(s) and volume(s)	Price(s) Volume(s) Nil  416,667
d)	Aggregated information - Aggregated volume - Price	N/A
e)	Date of the transaction	2023-12-04
f)	Place of the transaction	Outside a trading venue

For further information:

Hotel Chocolat Group plc	c/o Citigate           + 44 (0) 20 7638 9571
Angus Thirlwell, Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer
Jon Akehurst, Chief Financial Officer
Liberum Capital Limited - Nominated Adviser and Broker	+ 44 (0) 20 3100 2222
Dru Danford
Edward Thomas
Miquela Bezuidenhoudt
Citigate Dewe Rogerson - Financial PR	+ 44 (0) 20 7638 9571
Angharad Couch
Ellen Wilton
Alex Winch

In accordance with Rule 26.1 of the Takeover Code, a copy of this announcement will be available, subject to certain restrictions relating to persons resident in restricted jurisdictions, on Hotel Chocolat's website at https://www.hotelchocolat.com/uk/investor-relations-offer.html by no later than 12 noon (London time) on the business day following the date of this announcement. The content of the website referred to in this announcement is not incorporated into and does not form part of this announcement.

Notes to Editors:

Hotel Chocolat is a premium British chocolate maker with a strong and distinctive D2C brand. The business was founded by Angus Thirlwell and Peter Harris, who are still executives within the business, and has traded under the Hotel Chocolat brand since 2003. The Group is unusual in being a grower (organic cacao farm in Saint Lucia), a manufacturer (Cambridgeshire) and owning its extensive direct to consumer channels (branded stores, websites). The Group was admitted to trading on AIM in 2016.

 

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