Issue of LTIP units and grant of share options

RNS Number : 5693B

Blackbird PLC

09 October 2020

 

9 October 2020

Blackbird plc

(the "Company")

Issue of LTIP units and grant of share options

Blackbird plc (AIM: BIRD), developer and seller of market-leading cloud video platform Blackbird, announces that it has today issued units to Directors of the Company, pursuant to the Company's Long Term Incentive Plan which was approved by shareholders at the 2019 Annual General Meeting.  Details of the number of units being issued to each Director are set out below.

Under the Long Term Incentive Plan, LTIP 1 and LTIP 2 units are designed to allow individuals to share in improving shareholder value above a base share price (15p and 20p for LTIP 1 and LTIP 2 respectively). The Long Term Incentive Plan is designed to reward specific individuals through cash payments for activities that drive value creation for shareholders. Each of LTIP 1 and LTIP 2 consists of 5,000 LTIP units that collectively form a pool and the value of each pool is calculated at 5% of the increase in the Company's share price  above the base share price for each pool, respectively.

Name	Title	LTIP1 units being issued	LTIP2 units being issued	LTIP1 units held post issue	LTIP2 units
					held post issue
Ian McDonough	Chief Executive Officer	82.2	191.9	357.2	191.9
Stephen Streater	R&D Director	49.3	115.1	49.3	115.1
Stephen White	Chief Operating and Financial Officer	49.3	115.1	49.3	115.1

In total 221.9 LTIP1 units and 518.1 LTIP2 units are being issued to Directors and senior management. The units vest at the end of the current LTIP period which is scheduled to be 31 December 2021. Details of the Long Term Incentive Plan are set out in the investors section of the Company's website. 

In addition, the following options over the Company's ordinary shares of 0.8 pence (the "Ordinary Shares") have today been granted to the non-executive directors of the Company as part of an employee-wide share option grant over 1,515,000 unissued Ordinary Shares:

Name	Title	Number of options granted	Exercise price	Number of options held post grant
Andrew Bentley	Non-Executive Chairman	100,000	18.5p	960,000
Dawn Airey	Non-Executive Director	75,000	18.5p	560,000
John Honeycutt	Non-Executive Director	75,000	18.5p	325,000
David Main	Non-Executive Director	75,000	18.5p	1,835,000

The options were granted under the Company's EMI share option scheme and subject to certain performance conditions.

Following the above grant of options there are a total of 12,330,000 share options over Ordinary Shares held by Directors and PDMRs of the Company, representing 3.66% of the Company's current issued share capital of 337,054,092 Ordinary Shares.

The FCA notifications in respect of the above grant of the options, made in accordance with the requirements of the EU Market Abuse Regulation, are appended below.

Contacts:

Blackbird plc	Tel: [phone]
Ian McDonough, Chief Executive Officer
Stephen White, Chief Operating and Financial Officer
Allenby Capital Limited (Nominated Adviser and Broker)	Tel: [phone]
Nick Naylor / Asha Chotai (Corporate Finance)
Amrit Nahal (Equity Sales)

About Blackbird p lc

Blackbird operates in the fast-growing SaaS and cloud video market, and has created the world's most advanced suite of cloud-native computing applications for video, all underpinned by its lightning-fast codec. Blackbird's patented technology allows for frame accurate navigation, playback, viewing and editing in the cloud. Blackbird underpins multiple applications, which are used by rights holders, broadcasters, sports and news video specialists, esports, live events and content owners, post-production houses, other mass market digital video channels and corporations.

Since it is cloud-native, Blackbird removes the need for costly, high end workstations and can be used from almost anywhere on almost any device. It also allows full visibility on multi-location digital content, improves time to market for live content such as video clips and highlights for social media distribution, and ultimately results in much more effective monetisation.

Blackbird® is a registered trademark of Blackbird plc.

Websites
www.blackbird.video

Social media

www.linkedin.com/company/blackbird-cloud
www.twitter.com/blackbirdcloud
www.facebook.com/blackbirdplc  

 

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	Andrew Bentley Non-Executive Chairman Dawn Airey Non-Executive Director John Honeycutt Non-Executive Director David Main Non-Executive Director
2	Reason for the notification
a)	Position/status	See above
b)	Initial notification /Amendment	Initial notification
3	Details of the issuer, emission allowance market participant, auction platform, auctioneer or auction monitor
a)	Name	Blackbird plc
b)	LEI	2138006DWRVTIAVW3415
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	Options over Ordinary Shares of 0.8p each
b)	Nature of the transaction	Grant of options over Ordinary Shares
c)	Price(s) and volume(s)	Director Volume Exercise Price Andrew Bentley 100,000 18.5p Dawn Airey 75,000 18.5p John Honeycutt 75,000 18.5p David Main 75,000 18.5p
d)	Aggregated information - Aggregated volume - Price	n/a
e)	Date of the transaction	9 October 2020
f)	Place of the transaction	Outside of a trading venue - grant of options

 

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