Joint Share Ownership Plan

RNS Number : 5867J

Iomart Group PLC

01 April 2010

 



1 April 2010

iomart Group plc

("iomart" or "the Company")

Joint Share Ownership Plan and Surrender of Options

iomart announces that it has established a Joint Share Ownership Plan ("JSOP") to enable the Company to motivate and retain its senior management.

For the purposes of the JSOP, the Company has established a new employee benefit trust ("EBT") which has subscribed for 2,513,297 new shares in the Company and acquired a further 2,463,887 shares currently held by the Company in treasury all at a price of 49.5p which have been funded by a loan from the Company. All 4,977,184 of the shares will be held jointly between the EBT and certain members of the senior management team.

Those individuals participating in the JSOP have agreed to surrender a matching volume of share options previously granted under the Company's unapproved share option scheme.

On 31 March 2010 the Directors of the Company surrendered in total 4,750,079 share options as follows:-

Director	Position	Share Options Surrendered	Exercise Price
Angus MacSween	Chief Executive	322,612	78.5p
Angus MacSween	Chief Executive	1,156,990	46.5p
Richard Logan	Finance Director	500,000	50.5p
Richard Logan	Finance Director	1,021,505	46.5p
Sarah Haran	Executive Director	177,867	78.5p
Sarah Haran	Executive Director	414,018	50.5p
Sarah Haran	Executive Director	1,157,087	46.5p

All performance criteria and vesting periods which applied to the share options surrendered will also apply to shares subject to the JSOP.

The EBT's interest gives it the right on a sale of shares subject to the JSOP to receive the higher of the subscription price of the JSOP shares and the original exercise price of the surrendered options ("the participation price"). In addition the participation price of the JSOP shares will escalate at 3% per annum with the exception of those where the participation price is 78.5p. On a sale of JSOP shares the participant has the right to receive any increase in the sale price over the participation price.

All dividend and voting rights in the shares held by the JSOP have been waived.

As a result of the creation of the JSOP the following Directors of the Company acquired on 31 March 2010 an interest in 4,750,079 ordinary shares of 1p each in the Company ("Ordinary Shares"), which they hold jointly with the Employee Benefit Trust.

Director	Position	Interest in JSOP  shares	Existing Shareholding	Shareholding interest (inc. JSOP shares)	% interest  of total voting rights 1
Angus MacSween	Chief Executive	1,479,602	19,686,304	21,165,906	20.1
Richard Logan	Finance Director	1,521,505	135,500	1,657,005	0.1
Sarah Haran	Executive Director	1,748,972	1,224,944	2,973,916	1.3

¹ For this calculation, as shares in the JSOP are non-voting, these shares have been excluded from the numerator and denominator.

For further information contact:

iomart Group plc                                                Tel. [phone]

Angus MacSween, Chief Executive Officer

Richard Logan, Finance Director

KBC Peel Hunt                                                  Tel. [phone]

Richard Kauffer

Daniel Harris

ICIS                                                                  Tel. [phone]

Tom Moriarty

Bob Huxford

 

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