Regulatory News
Grant of Options
26 September 2019
Equals, the e-banking and payments group, today announces that it has granted 1,750,000 options over ordinary shares of 1 pence each in the capital of the Company ("New Options") to the following persons discharging managerial responsibilities ("PDMR's"):
| Name | Position | New Options Granted | No. of options held prior to award | Total options held following grant |
| Ian Strafford-Taylor | Chief Executive Officer | 750,000 | 4,268,000 | 5,018,000 |
| Richard Cooper* | Group Finance Director | 500,000 | 0 | 500,000 |
| Ben Wynn | Chief Product and Marketing Officer | 500,000 | 0 | 500,000 |
Appointment to the board of Equals effective from 14 October 2019.
The New Options give holders the right to subscribe for new ordinary shares of 1 pence each in the capital of the Company ("Ordinary Shares") at an exercise price of 101.1 pence per Ordinary Share. The options vest in 3 equal tranches after 1, 2 and 3 years from the date of grant subject to conditions relating to continued employment being satisfied. For Ian Strafford-Taylor and Ben Wynn, the date of grant is todays date whereas in the case of Richard Cooper this will be from 14th October 2019, the date at which he takes up his position.
The Remuneration Committee of the Company are also in the process of establishing a Long-Term Incentive Plan (the "LTIP") which will retain and motivate key senior executives over the Company's next phase of development. The Remuneration Committee intend to consult with major shareholders the principal terms of the LTIP ahead of formally approving the plan.
Finally, as set out above, before the issue of New Options Mr Strafford-Taylor held an interest in 4,268,000 options over Ordinary Shares ("Existing Options"). A summary of the Existing Options held by Mr Strafford-Taylor is set out below
| No. of Existing Options | Exercise price | Date Granted | Date Expires |
| 1,789,300 | £0.36 | 22/07/2014 | 03/11/2019 |
| 1,535,750 | £0.36 | 28/07/2014 | 03/11/2019 |
| 192,950 | £0.22 | 22/07/2014 | 03/11/2019 |
| 750,000 | £0.30 | 28/09/2016 | 27/09/2026 |
In addition, Dr Jules Bean, The Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of Equals Group, holds Existing Options as per the summary below
| No. of Existing Options | Exercise price | Date Granted | Date Expires |
| 200,000 | £0.07 | 22/07/2014 | 03/11/2019 |
| 254,800 | £0.22 | 22/07/2014 | 03/11/2019 |
| 400,000 | £0.36 | 28/07/2014 | 03/11/2019 |
| 50,000 | £0.30 | 28/09/2016 | 27/09/2026 |
3,518,000 Existing Options held by Mr Strafford-Taylor and 854,800 Existing Options held by Dr Bean expire on 03/11/2019. The Remuneration Committee has agreed to extend the expiry date of the total of 4,372,800 Existing Options to 03/11/2022.
The following disclosures are made in accordance with Article 19 of the EU Market Abuse Regulation 596/2014.
| 1 | Details of the person discharging managerial responsibilities / person closely associated | |||||
| a) | Name | Ian Strafford Taylor | ||||
| 2 | Reason for the notification | |||||
| a) | Position/status | Chief Executive Officer | ||||
| b) | Initial notification /Amendment | Initial | ||||
| 3 | Details of the issuer, emission allowance market participant, auction platform, auctioneer or auction monitor | |||||
| a) | Name | Equals plc | ||||
| b) | LEI | 213800CPI5S2GYB3RI27 | ||||
| 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 Identification code | Ordinary shares of 1p each ISIN: GB00BLS0XX25 |
||||
| b) | Nature of the transaction | Grant of options over new ordinary shares at an exercise price of 101.1p per share | ||||
| c) | Price(s) and volume(s) |
|
||||
| d) | Aggregated information - Aggregated volume - Price |
N/A - single transaction | ||||
| e) | Date of the transactions | 26 September 2019 | ||||
| f) | Place of the transactions | Outside a trading venue | ||||
| 1 | Details of the person discharging managerial responsibilities / person closely associated | |||||
| a) | Name | Richard Cooper | ||||
| 2 | Reason for the notification | |||||
| a) | Position/status | Chief Financial Officer (appointment effective from 14 October 2019) | ||||
| b) | Initial notification /Amendment | Initial | ||||
| 3 | Details of the issuer, emission allowance market participant, auction platform, auctioneer or auction monitor | |||||
| a) | Name | Equals plc | ||||
| b) | LEI | 213800CPI5S2GYB3RI27 | ||||
| 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 Identification code | Ordinary shares of 1p each ISIN: GB00BLS0XX25 |
||||
| b) | Nature of the transaction | Grant of options over new ordinary shares at an exercise price of 101.1p per share | ||||
| c) | Price(s) and volume(s) |
|
||||
| d) | Aggregated information - Aggregated volume - Price |
N/A - single transaction | ||||
| e) | Date of the transactions | 26 September 2019 | ||||
| f) | Place of the transactions | Outside a trading venue | ||||
| 1 | Details of the person discharging managerial responsibilities / person closely associated | |||||
| a) | Name | Ben Wynn | ||||
| 2 | Reason for the notification | |||||
| a) | Position/status | Chief Product and Marketing Officer | ||||
| b) | Initial notification /Amendment | Initial | ||||
| 3 | Details of the issuer, emission allowance market participant, auction platform, auctioneer or auction monitor | |||||
| a) | Name | Equals plc | ||||
| b) | LEI | 213800CPI5S2GYB3RI27 | ||||
| 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 Identification code | Ordinary shares of 1p each ISIN: GB00BLS0XX25 |
||||
| b) | Nature of the transaction | Grant of options over new ordinary shares at an exercise price of 101.1p per share | ||||
| c) | Price(s) and volume(s) |
|
||||
| d) | Aggregated information - Aggregated volume - Price |
N/A - single transaction | ||||
| e) | Date of the transactions | 26 September 2019 | ||||
| f) | Place of the transactions | Outside a trading venue | ||||
Contact:
| Equals Group plc Ian Strafford-Taylor, CEO |
+44 (0) 20 7778 9308 |
| Cenkos Securities plc Max Hartley/Callum Davidson Nick Searle |
+44 (0) 20 7397 8900 |
| Canaccord Genuity Bobbie Hilliam / David Tyrrell Alex Aylen |
+44 (0)20 7523 8150 |
| Yellow Jersey Charles Goodwin Joe Burgess Annabel Atkins |
+44 (0) 7747 788 221 +44 (0) 7946 424 651 |
About Equals
Equals is a leading challenger brand in banking and payments that disintermediates the incumbent banks with a superior user experience and low-cost operating model. Our business enables personal and business customers to make easy, low-cost payments both domestically and in a broad range of currencies and across a range of products all via one integrated system. The Equals platform facilitates payments either direct to Bank Accounts or at 35 million merchants and over 1 million ATM's in a broad range of countries globally via Mobile apps, the Internet, SMS, wire transfer and MasterCard/VISA debit cards.
Equals provides money movement services to both personal and business customers through four channels: Currency Cards, Physical Currency, International Payments and Bank Accounts. The Currency Card and Physical Currency offerings facilitate multiple overseas payments at points of sale and ATM's whereas the International Payments channel supports wire transfer foreign exchange transactions direct to Bank Accounts. For Corporates, Equals has a market-leading business-expenses solution based around its corporate platform and prepaid card. This service can yield significant savings on a Corporate's expenses and procurement both domestically and overseas, through better controls and improved transparency. The platform also streamlines the downstream administrative processes and integrates into accounting software, thus saving costs. Equals offers retail and business bank accounts with all the functionality you would expect from a bank, namely faster payments, BACs, direct debits, international payments and a debit card.
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