Award & Concurrent Cancellation of Options

Chaarat Gold Holdings Ltd

22 December 2023

 

22 December 2023

Chaarat Gold Holdings Limited

("Chaarat" or the "Company")

Award & Concurrent Cancellation of Options

Chaarat Gold (AIM: CGH), the AIM-quoted gold mining company, with development projects in the Kyrgyz Republic, is pleased to announce the introduction of a rationalised share option package for the Board and the concurrent cancellation of certain historic options.

The Board recognises the importance of share options to appropriately incentivise and retain talent as well as to ensure their interests are aligned with that of the Company and its shareholders. Following a review, the Remuneration Committee of the Board recommended that, given the operational and corporate changes during 2023, the directors' share options package was no longer appropriate and that it should be replaced to re-align the option scheme with the current strategic focus of the Company (as a development company, rather than a current producer). The Board of Directors approved this recommendation and is issuing a new set of options.

Accordingly, the Company has cancelled, with mutual agreement and immediate effect, 20,449,894 options over Ordinary Shares (the "Historic Options").

On 20 December 2023 (the "Grant Date"), the Company granted a total of 22,500,000 options over Ordinary Shares (the "New Options"), a portion of which are to replace the Historic Options alongside the grant of options to a new holder - as detailed below.

PDMR	Number of New Options Granted	Exercise Price of New Options Granted	Number of Historic Options cancelled	Total number of options held following the grant and cancellation of options
Martin Andersson	15,000,000	£0.20	16,300,639	15,000,000
Robert Benbow	1,500,000	£0.20	1,778,252	1,500,000
Gordon Wylie	1,500,000	£0.20	1,185,501	1,500,000
Robert Edwards	1,500,000	£0.20	592,751	1,500,000
Hussein Barma	1,500,000	£0.20	592,751	1,500,000
Sandy Stash	1,500,000	£0.20	-	1,500,000
Total	22,500,000	N/A	20,449,894	22,500,000

The New Options granted vest in two equal tranches on the first and second anniversaries of the Grant Date and expire five years from the Grant Date.

Following the cancellation of the Historic Options and grant of the New Options, the Company now has 37,852,880 options outstanding over a total of 728,056,182 existing Ordinary Shares.

Market Abuse Regulation (MAR) Disclosure

The information contained within this announcement is deemed by the Company to constitute inside information as stipulated under the Market Abuse Regulation (EU) No. 596/2014 as it forms part of United Kingdom domestic law by virtue of the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018, as amended by virtue of the Market Abuse (Amendment) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019.

For further information visit www.chaarat.com or please contact:
Chaarat Gold Holdings Limited	[phone]
David Mackenzie (Chief Financial Officer)	[e-mail]
Strand Hanson Limited (Nominated Adviser)	[phone]
Ritchie Balmer / James Spinney / Robert Collins
Axis Capital Markets Limited (Joint Broker)	[phone]
Ben Tadd / Lewis Jones
Panmure Gordon (UK) Limited (Joint Broker)	[phone]
John Prior / Hugh Rich

About Chaarat

Chaarat is an exploration and development company which owns the Tulkubash and Kyzyltash Gold Projects in the Kyrgyz Republic. The Company has a clear strategy to build a leading emerging markets gold company through organic growth and selective M&A.

Chaarat aims to create value for its shareholders, employees and communities from its high-quality gold and mineral deposits by building relationships based on trust and operating to the best environmental, social and employment standards.

The notification below, made in accordance with the requirements of the UK Market Abuse Regulation, provides further detail.

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	i)             Martin Andersson	Executive Chairman
		ii)            Robert Benbow	Non-Executive Director
		iii)           Gordon Wylie	Senior Independent Director
		iv)           Robert Edwards	Independent Non-Executive Director
		v)            Hussein Barma	Independent Non-Executive Director
2.	Reason for the notification
a)	Position / status	See 1(a) above
b)	Initial notification / amendment	Initial notification
3.	Details of the issuer, emission allowance market participant, auction platform, auctioneer or auction monitor
a)	Name	Chaarat Gold Holdings Limited
b)	Legal entity identifier	213800T2A5CV84VTFJ70
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	Ordinary shares of US$0.01 each
	Identification code	VGG203461055
b)	Nature of the transaction	Cancellation of Options
c)	Currency	GBP
d)	Price(s) and volume(s)	Name Price(s) Volume(s) Martin Andersson £0.42 16,300,639 Robert Benbow £0.42 1,778,252 Gordon Wylie £0.42 1,185,501 Robert Edwards £0.42 592,751 Hussein Barma £0.42 592,751
e)	Aggregated information ·    Aggregated volume ·    Aggregated price	20,449,894 N/A
f)	Date of the transaction	20 December 2023
g)	Place of the transaction	XLON

1.	Details of the person discharging managerial responsibilities / person closely associated
a)	Name	i)             Martin Andersson	Executive Chairman
		ii)            Robert Benbow	Non-Executive Director
		iii)           Gordon Wylie	Senior Independent Director
		iv)           Robert Edwards	Independent Non-Executive Director
		v)            Hussein Barma	Independent Non-Executive Director
		vi)           Sandy Stash	Independent Non-Executive Director
2.	Reason for the notification
a)	Position / status	See 1(a) above
b)	Initial notification / amendment	Initial notification
3.	Details of the issuer, emission allowance market participant, auction platform, auctioneer or auction monitor
a)	Name	Chaarat Gold Holdings Limited
b)	Legal entity identifier	213800T2A5CV84VTFJ70
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	Ordinary shares of US$0.01 each
	Identification code	VGG203461055
b)	Nature of the transaction	Grant of Options
c)	Currency	GBP
d)	Price(s) and volume(s)	Name Price(s) Volume(s) Martin Andersson £0.20 15,000,000 Robert Benbow £0.20 1,500,000 Gordon Wylie £0.20 1,500,000 Robert Edwards £0.20 1,500,000 Hussein Barma £0.20 1,500,000 Sandy Stash £0.20 1,500,000
e)	Aggregated information ·    Aggregated volume ·    Aggregated price	22,500,000 N/A
f)	Date of the transaction	20 December 2023
g)	Place of the transaction	XLON

 

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