Grant of Options under Long Term Incentive Plan

RNS Number : 8295P

Sterling Energy PLC

30 October 2012

 



30 October 2012

STERLING ENERGY PLC

Grant of Options under Long Term Incentive Plan

Sterling Energy Plc ("Sterling" or the "Company") (AIM: SEY), the independent oil and gas exploration and production company with interests in the Middle East and Africa, advises of the following annual grant of options over Ordinary Shares of 40p nominal value to certain executive directors under the Sterling Energy Plc All Staff Long Term Incentive Plan ("All Staff LTIP") and to the non-executive directors under the Sterling Energy Plc NED Long Term Incentive Plan ("NED LTIP").

The options are granted with a 5 year term; a 3 year performance period over which the Performance Conditions (see below) are measured, and then a 2 year exercise period. The options are granted as nominal cost options with an exercise price of 40p per share.

Under the 2012 awards, the Directors listed below have been awarded the following options over Ordinary Shares in the Company.

Director	Ordinary Shares under option pursuant to the All Staff & NED LTIP 2012 Awards	Total number of Ordinary Shares under option
Alastair Beardsall	Nil	562,500
Angus MacAskill	989,250	2,599,050
Philip Frank	843,750	1,941,350
Keith Henry	103,150	228,150
Nicholas Clayton	103,150	228,150
Malcolm Pattinson	103,150	186,483
TOTAL	2,142,450	5,745,683

The awards to the non-executive directors are made subject to the approval by shareholders at the next general meeting and are not subject to Performance Conditions.

In addition to the options listed above, a further 3,522,900 options have been issued to Sterling's staff under the All Staff LTIP scheme. In total, there are currently 12,131,195 options over Ordinary Shares in issue representing 5.5% of the issued share capital of the Company.

The Performance Conditions for the options recently granted under the All Staff LTIP are as follows

1.   The quantity of options that vest is based on the change of the Company's share price ("SESP") compared to the change of the FTSE350 index ("Index") over the 3 year Performance Period of 1 October 2012 to 30 September 2015. The reference points for 1 October 2012 are SESP of 40.0 pence and Index of 3,095.

2.   If the SESP performance matches the Index performance, then 25% of the share options will be earned.

3.   If the SESP performance is between matching the Index and out-performing by 50%, the amount of the share options that will be earned will be determined by extrapolating on a straight line basis.

4.   If the SESP out performs the Index performance by 50% or more, then 100% of the share options will be earned.

5.   If the SESP under-performs the Index performance by 10% or more, then no share options will be earned and the share options will lapse.

6.   If the SESP performance is between matching the Index and under-performing by 10%, the amount of the share options that will be earned will be determined by extrapolating on a straight line basis.

Further information:
Sterling Energy Plc	([phone])
Alastair Beardsall, Chairman Angus MacAskill, Chief Executive Philip Frank, Exploration Director
Liberum Capital	([phone])
Simon Atkinson Tim Graham
Peel Hunt LLP	([phone])
Andy Crossley Richard Crichton

 

END

 

 

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