Transaction in Own Shares and Exercise of Options

RNS Number : 8216G

Character Group PLC

03 July 2012

 

3 July 2012

The Character Group plc

("the Company")

Transaction in own shares and Exercise of Options by Directors

As part of the Company's stated objective to enhance shareholder value, the Company advises that it has today bought back for cancellation 17,000 ordinary shares of 5p each in the capital of the Company ("Ordinary Shares") in the market, at a price of 141 pence per ordinary share. These Ordinary Shares represent approximately 0.08 per cent. of the current issued share capital of the Company (excluding shares held in treasury).

The Company also announces that it has today received from certain Directors of the Company due notices of exercise in respect of options granted under its 2006 Share Option Plan.   The notices were in respect of a total of 71,000 Ordinary Shares.

These Ordinary Shares were alloted by the Company today and rank pari passu with the existing issued Ordinary Shares.   These Ordinary Shares were admitted to trading on AIM today pursuant to existing block listings granted to the Company by London Stock Exchange plc.

Following the allotment of these new Ordinary Shares and taking account of the buy-back of Ordinary Shares effected today, the issued share capital of the Company is 22,687,178 Ordinary Shares, excluding Ordinary Shares held by the Company in treasury, (the "Revised Issued Voting Share Capital").

The table below sets out further details of the option exercises in respect each of the relevant Directors:

Name	Number of Ordinary Shares over which options exercised	Exercise price
Kiran Shah	47,000	63 pence
Michael Hyde	24,000	35.5 pence

Following the exercise of the above share options, the interests of the Directors in the issued share capital of the Company are as follows:

Director	Number of Ordinary Shares prior to option exercises	Number of Ordinary Shares issued on exercise of options	Number of Ordinary Shares following option exercises	% of Revised Issued Voting Share Capital
R. King1	3,731,209	-	3,731,209	16.45%
K.P. Shah2	5,473,250	47,000	5,520,250	24.33%
J.J. Diver3	1,026,003	-	1,026,003	4.52%
J.J.P. Kissane	600,000	-	600,000	2.64%
M .S. Hyde	100,000	24,000	124,000	0.55%
Orbis Pension Trustees Ltd4	285,000	-	285,000	1.26%
D. Harris	44,097	-	44,097	0.19%
Lord Birdwood	8,750	-	8,750	0.04%

Notes:

1.        included in the interests of R. King are his interests in 1,635,428 Ordinary Shares held by Cedarberg Investments Limited and 771,750 Ordinary Shares held by the TOPS Pension Scheme;

2.        included in the interests of K.P. Shah are the interests of Sarissa Holdings Limited in 4,830,000 Ordinary Shares and 618,250 Ordinary Shares of Mr Shah's personal pension scheme;

3.        included in the interests of J.J. Diver are 401,867 Ordinary Shares held by Mr Diver's personal pension scheme;

4.        Orbis Pension Trustees Limited is the trustee of the Company's Employee Share Ownership Trust. Each of R. King, K.P. Shah, J.J.P. Kissane, J.J. Diver and M.S.Hyde is deemed to be interested in such Ordinary Shares by virtue of being within the class of beneficiaries defined by such trust.

The Company has a total unutilised capacity to buy back up to a further 5,378,200 Ordinary Shares under the authority granted at the Annual General Meeting in January 2012.

The Company holds 4,019,456 Ordinary Shares in treasury, representing approximately 17.72 per cent. of the Revised Issued Voting Share Capital, which do not carry voting rights.

The figure of 22,687,178 may be used by shareholders as the denominator for the calculations by which they will determine if they are required to notify their interest, or change to their interest, in the Company under the Disclosure and Transparency Rules.

Enquiries:
Richard King, Chairman	Fiona Tooley	Russell Cook
Kiran Shah, Group Finance Director & Joint MD	IR & Media Relations	Carl Holmes
The Character Group plc	Tooley Street Communications	Charles Stanley Securities
Tel: [phone]	Tel: [phone]	(Nominated Adviser)
		Tel: [phone]
Ticker: AIM: CCT

 

END

 

 

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