ACP Capital Long-Term Employee Share Option Plan
20 June 2008
The board (“the Board”) of ACP Capital Limited (“ACP Capital” or the “Company”: APL.LN) has the discretionary authority to issue annual stock options (“Options”) of up to 10% of the share capital of the Company for its direct and group employees (which includes employees of ACP Capital UK LLP).
On 30 November 2006, the Board granted 4,430,000 Options in aggregate for the calendar year 2006 performance, representing 6.90% of the issued share capital at that time and 2.26% of the current share capital.
On 11 March 2008, the Board approved the granting of 7,065,000 Options in aggregate for the calendar year 2007 performance, representing 3.54% of the issued share capital at that time and 3.60% of the current share capital. The Options were accepted by the Directors on 13 May 2008, following the approved amendments to the ESOP and completion of documentation. This should have been announced at the time but due to an administrative oversight, its release has been delayed.
Both of these sets of long-term stock Options are subject to the vesting periods and conditions approved at the Annual General Meeting ("AGM") of Shareholders on 3 April 2008.
As detailed in the Company's annual accounts, the Options granted to the Directors for the calendar year 2006 performance were as follows:
| Option Holder | No. of Options granted |
| Derek Vago | 2,500,000 |
| Eric Youngblood | 750,000 |
| Nikolaj Larsen | 750,000 |
The Options granted to the Directors for the calendar year 2007 performance were as follows:
| Option Holder | No. of Options granted |
| Derek Vago | 4,000,000 |
| Eric Youngblood | 1,250,000 |
| Nikolaj Larsen | 1,250,000 |
Following these grants, the total Options held by each Director of ACP Capital are as follows:
| Option Holder | No. of Options granted |
| Derek Vago | 6,500,000 |
| Eric Youngblood | 2,000,000 |
| Nikolaj Larsen | 2,000,000 |
The Directors' interests in the issued share capital of the Company include the above Options, together with those ordinary shares directly held by the Directors and those shares awarded in lieu of a cash bonus for the 2007 financial year, which were announced on 2 April 2008 and are subject to a vesting period expiring on 31 December 2008. The Directors’ interests are therefore as follows:
| Name | Total ESOP (1) Options | Total ESAP (1),(2) Options | Shares Directly Held |
| Derek Vago | 6,500,000 | 470,588 | 13,227,000 |
| Eric Youngblood | 2,000,000 | 411,765 | 710,000 |
| Nikolaj Larsen | 2,000,000 | 411,765 | 700,000 |
1 Subject to vesting of the ESOPs and ESAPs as outlined below
2 Employee Share Award Plan
For all granted Options, each Option is exercisable into one ordinary share of the Company, at an exercise price of 0.1 pence with vesting conditional on achievement of total shareholder return targets and the Option holder not being a bad leaver (as defined in the rules of the ESOP programme). The Options vest, subject to the satisfaction of the performance conditions, in three tranches over a three year period (as amended under the resolutions recently passed at the AGM on 3 April 2008). Since inception (and in the current programmes), the Company’s ESOP and ESAP programmes, as is normal in such programmes, contain or have contained change of control provisions under which all ESOPs and ESAPs fully vest in the event of a change of control, including a change to the Board.
Enquiries:
- Rob Bailhache & Nick Henderson, Financial Dynamics (Media Relations) +44 (0) 20 7269 7200
- Sacha Macintosh, ACP Capital UK LLP +44 (0) 844 800 4530
- Chris Wells, Stewart Wallace, Collins Stewart +44 (0) 207 523 8350
For further information on GCI Management, please visit www.gci-management.com.
About ACP Capital
ACP Capital (LSE AIM: APL) is a Jersey-incorporated specialist integrated finance and asset management company focused on providing equity and debt products to European small and medium sized enterprises (the “SMEs”). ACP Capital aims to benefit from opportunities generated from the strong growth in SME demand for integrated finance, combined with the reduced appetite for SME lending among traditional banks owing to higher regulatory capital requirements. In order to better serve the SME markets directly, ACP Capital is establishing localised operating platforms (the "Platforms") in its key markets of Germany, France and the United Kingdom. These include to-date Leasecom, a leading SME finance provider in France, and GCI, a specialist private equity firm for the German SME market. Further Platforms are being evaluated currently to serve the remaining key markets.