Grant of Options

ARCONTECH GROUP PLC 

(“Arcontech” or the “Company”)

Grant of Options

Arcontech (AIM: ARC), the provider of products and services for real-time financial market data processing and trading, announces that on 2 October 2020 it granted a total of 155,000 options (“Options”) over ordinary shares of £0.125 in the Company (“Ordinary Shares”) under the Company’s EMI and non EMI schemes to various employees.

Options were granted to the following persons disclosing managerial responsibility (“PDMRs”): Matthew Jeffs (Chief Executive), Geoff Wicks (Non-Executive Chairman), Ben Hodges (Finance Director) and Darren Lewis (Head of Development).

The Options have been granted at a price of 164.5p pence per Ordinary Share, being the closing mid-market price of an Ordinary Share on 2 October 2020. They will be exercisable from 30 June 2023.

For Matthew Jeffs and Darren Lewis, the Options will vest subject to the Company’s compound annual rate of growth in fully diluted earnings* for the three financial years ending 30 June 2023, subject to performance criteria as follows:

–     compound annual earnings growth of 10% or more – fully vested (100%);

–     compound annual earnings growth between 5%-10% – partial vesting between 0% and 100% on a sliding scale; and

–     compound annual earnings growth of 5% and below – nil.

Dependent on the performance criteria above being achieved, the maximum number of Options that will vest and become exercisable is as follows:

Geoff Wicks has been granted 30,000 Options that are not subject to performance criteria. Ben Hodges has been granted 10,000 Options that are not subject to performance criteria. The 45,000 Options granted to non-PDMR employees are also not subject to performance criteria.

Any Ordinary Shares arising from the vesting of Options must be held for a period of two years.

Following this grant, there are a total of 657,618 options outstanding, representing approximately 4.9% of the current issued share capital of the Company.

Further detail is set out in the PDMR disclosure tables below.

* Fully diluted earnings will be based on: (a) the Company’s pre-tax profit excluding exceptional items and the share option charge and (b) the current UK corporation tax rate of 19%, such that the fully diluted earnings calculation takes no account of R&D and deferred tax credits. For the purposes of the fully diluted earnings calculation, the applied rate of corporation tax will remain constant at 19% irrespective of any current or future changes to corporation tax.

Notification and public disclosure of transactions by persons discharging managerial responsibilities and persons closely associated with them