Director/PDMR Shareholding

RNS Number : 7579P

AstraZeneca PLC

29 October 2012

 



Transactions by Person Discharging Managerial Responsibilities

Disclosure Rules DR 3.1.4R

On 26 October 2012, Pascal Soriot, Chief Executive Officer, was granted awards over the Company's USD0.25 Ordinary Shares as set out below.  These share awards were negotiated and agreed at the time of Mr Soriot's appointment as Chief Executive Officer of the Company and were approved by the Remuneration Committee in order to compensate Mr Soriot for the forfeiture of unvested long-term incentive awards from his previous employer.  The principle governing the decision of the Remuneration Committee was that the buyout should be implemented only in shares of AstraZeneca in circumstances where the vesting and, in the case of the AZIP award, holding period operate over a period of many years.

On 26 October 2012, Mr Soriot was granted an award under the terms of the AstraZeneca Investment Plan (AZIP) over the Company's USD0.25 Ordinary Shares as follows:

Shares awarded under AZIP	Award price
69,108	2894p

This AZIP award is subject to a four-year performance period (1 January 2012 to 31 December 2015) and a subsequent four-year holding period (1 January 2016 to 31 December 2019). The performance hurdle that applies to this AZIP award is that the annual dividend per share paid to holders of Ordinary Shares must increase from $2.80 over the four-year performance period ($2.80 being the full-year dividend for 2011), and that dividend cover over the same period (based on reported earnings before restructuring costs) does not fall below 1.5 times.

A summary of the AZIP can be found in the AstraZeneca Annual Report and Form 20-F Information 2011 which is available on the Company's website www.astrazeneca.com.

Also on 26 October 2012, Mr Soriot was granted an award of restricted shares as follows:

Restricted shares awarded	Award price
69,108	2894p

Mr Soriot's employment with the Company commenced on 1 October 2012 and the restricted shares will vest, subject to his continued employment with the Company, as follows:

40% will vest on 1 October 2013

30% will vest on 1 October 2014

30% will vest on 1 October 2015

Following these awards, Mr Soriot has a total interest in 138,216 AstraZeneca shares.

A C N Kemp

Company Secretary

29 October 2012

 

END

 

 

RDSUKSURUBARUAA