Long Term Incentive Plan (LTIP) awards

IQE plc

("IQE" or the "Company")

25 January 2010

IQE plc announces that on 22nd January 2010, a grant of 9,267,910 nil-cost share
options over the Company's ordinary shares of 1 pence each have been awarded
under the Company's Long Term Incentive Plan (LTIP) to certain directors of the
Group detailed in the table below:



+--------------------+------------------------+--------------------------------+
|                    |                        | No. of Ordinary shares subject |
|        Name        |          Role          |    to award under the LTIP     |
|                    |                        +---------+----------------------+
|                    |                        |     2008|                  2009|
+--------------------+------------------------+---------+----------------------+
|Dr Andrew Nelson    |Chief Executive Officer |1,833,219|             2,261,905|
+--------------------+------------------------+---------+----------------------+
|Mr Phillip Rasmussen|Chief Finance Officer   |1,157,822|             1,428,571|
+--------------------+------------------------+---------+----------------------+
|Dr Howard Williams  |Chief Operations Officer|1,157,822|             1,428,571|
+--------------------+------------------------+---------+----------------------+



Awards  are granted under  the LTIP previously  approved by shareholders and are
subject   to  challenging  performance  criteria  also  previously  approved  by
shareholders.  The  share  options  have  a  three  (3)  year vesting period. No
consideration  is payable for  the grant of  the Awards and  the exercise of the
whole  or part of  the number of share  options is conditional  upon meeting the
performance criteria.

The   notification  of  these  awards  is  intended  to  satisfy  the  Company's
obligations under the Disclosure and Transparency Rules.







Contacts:


IQE plc ([phone])
Chris Meadows
Phil Rasmussen

Noble & Company Limited (+ 44 20 7763 2200)
John Llewellyn-Lloyd
Sam Reynolds




[HUG#1376936]