Gateley, the legal and professional services group, is pleased to announce the introduction of a new Restricted Share Award Plan ("RSA") and also awards under the existing Long Term Incentive Plan ("LTIP").
The RSA forms part of the Group's retention and incentivisation policy for emerging senior talent. It supports long-term share ownership for people who are promoted to Partner or Partner-equivalent roles. It is a continuation of the Board's strategy to differentiate the position of a Partner or equivalent at Gateley from that of a Partner in traditionally structured professional services businesses.
The Board is committed to providing its people with the opportunity to own shares in the Company. Such share ownership promotes strong alignment with the Group's external shareholders, incentivises employees and is reflective of Gateley's long-established culture. At least 75% of current staff are existing share or option holders in the Group.
The awards, which vest on receipt, are made when an individual is promoted to Partner or an equivalent position. Awards are subject to a five-year non-dealing restriction and are forfeited should employment be terminated within that period.
In addition, on inception of the RSA, the Board has made one-off awards to people who were non-equity Partners at the date of Gateley's IPO in June 2015 and have been promoted to Partner or Partner-equivalent since then.
The Board also announces today LTIP awards to certain Executive Directors and Senior Management over up to 1,115,000 Ordinary Shares of 10 pence each in the Company ("Ordinary Shares"). Awards under the LTIP vest at the end of a three-year period, dependent upon the achievement of profit related performance conditions and continuous employment. Details of these performance conditions can be found in the Group's annual report.
Issue of new Ordinary Shares and total voting rights
The Board has agreed to issue 1,422,560 Ordinary Shares to the Gateley Employee Benefit Trust ("the EBT") for the onward allocation to recipients of the RSA awards.
In addition, the Board announces the issue and allotment of 55,000 Ordinary Shares to the EBT for allocation to staff in Gateley Smithers Purslow.
Application will be made to the London Stock Exchange for the 1,477,560 new Ordinary Shares to be admitted to trading on AIM ("Admission"). It is expected that Admission will take place at 8.00am on 5 May 2022.
The new Ordinary Shares will rank pari passu with the existing Ordinary Shares in issue. Following Admission, Gateley's total issued share capital will comprise 124,556,879 Ordinary Shares. This number may be used by shareholders in Gateley as the denominator for the calculations by which they will determine if they are required to notify their interest in, or a change to their interest in, the share capital of Gateley under the FCA's Disclosure Guidance and Transparency Rules.