Diurnal Group PLC Grants of options and award of conditional shares (9526U)

TIDMDNL

RNS Number : 9526U

Diurnal Group PLC

12 April 2016

12 April 2016

Diurnal Group plc

("Diurnal" or the "Company")

Grants of share options and award of conditional shares

Diurnal Group plc (AIM: DNL), the specialty pharmaceutical company targeting patient needs in chronic endocrine (hormonal) diseases, announces the following grants of share options and award of conditional shares on 12 April 2016. The grants and award were described in detail in the Company's AIM Admission Document, published on 21 December 2015.

Exchange of existing share option agreements

In September 2015, Diurnal Limited granted share options to a number of individuals, including four of its directors; Peter Allen, Martin Whitaker, Ian Ardill and Richard Ross. It was intended that following admission to trading on AIM, existing options over shares in the capital of Diurnal Limited would be exchanged for replacement options over the capital of Diurnal Group plc. The share capital reorganisation of Diurnal Group plc involved the issue of 500 Diurnal Group plc ordinary shares for every one Diurnal Limited ordinary share. The share options will vest in thirds on each of the first, second and third anniversaries of grant (11 September 2015 for Martin Whitaker and Ian Ardill and 23 September 2015 for Peter Allen and Richard Ross) at exercise prices of GBP0.4377 (Martin Whitaker and Ian Ardill) and GBP0.002 (Peter Allen and Richard Ross) per share.

Grant of share options to Peter Allen

To deliver terms agreed in connection with his recruitment, Peter Allen has been granted share options over 104,421 ordinary shares of GBP0.05 each at an exercise price of GBP0.002 per share. The share options will vest in thirds on each of the first, second and third anniversaries of 24 December 2015, being the date of admission to trading on AIM. There are no other performance criteria.

Award of conditional shares to John Goddard

To deliver terms agreed in connection with his recruitment, John Goddard has been awarded 32,374 ordinary shares of GBP0.05 each for which Mr Goddard will pay the nominal value for each share. The award of shares will vest in thirds after 18, 24 and 36 months from 24 December 2015, being the date of admission to AIM. There are no other performance criteria.

The numbers of options and share awards held by the directors are as follows:

 
                                         Number 
                                       of share 
                                        options                  Number       Total                              Total 
                                      exchanged       Number         of      number           Number            number 
                                          prior     of share      share    of share   of conditional    of conditional 
                                   to admission      options    options     options           shares            shares 
 Name            Position                to AIM    exchanged    granted    now held          awarded          now held 
--------------  ---------------  --------------  -----------  ---------  ----------  ---------------  ---------------- 
 Peter           Non-executive 
  Allen           Chairman                    0       69,000    104,421     173,421                0                 0 
--------------  ---------------  --------------  -----------  ---------  ----------  ---------------  ---------------- 
 Martin 
  Whitaker       CEO                    424,500      495,000          0     919,500                0                 0 
--------------  ---------------  --------------  -----------  ---------  ----------  ---------------  ---------------- 
 Ian Ardill      CFO                          0      330,000          0     330,000                0                 0 
--------------  ---------------  --------------  -----------  ---------  ----------  ---------------  ---------------- 
 Richard 
  Ross           CSO                  1,019,000      330,000          0   1,349,000                0                 0 
--------------  ---------------  --------------  -----------  ---------  ----------  ---------------  ---------------- 
                 Non-executive 
 John Goddard     Director                    0            0          0           0           32,374            32,374 
--------------  ---------------  --------------  -----------  ---------  ----------  ---------------  ---------------- 
 Total                                1,443,500    1,224,000    104,421   2,771,921           32,374            32,374 
-------------------------------  --------------  -----------  ---------  ----------  ---------------  ---------------- 
 
 
 For further information, please visit www.diurnal.co.uk 
  or contact: 
 
                                           [phone] 
 Diurnal Group plc                          1000 
 Martin Whitaker, CEO 
 Ian Ardill, CFO 
 
 Numis Securities Ltd (Nominated           [phone] 
  Adviser)                                  1000 
 Nominated Adviser: Michael Meade, 
  Freddie Barnfield, Paul Gillam 
 Corporate Broking: James Black 
 
                                           [phone] 
 FTI Consulting                             1000 
 Simon Conway 
 Victoria Foster Mitchell 
 

Notes to Editors

About Diurnal

Diurnal is a clinical stage specialty pharmaceutical company targeting patient needs in chronic endocrine (hormonal) diseases which the Company believes are currently not satisfactorily met by existing treatments. It has identified a number of specialist endocrinology market opportunities in Europe and the US that are together estimated to be worth more than $11bn per annum.

On its admission to AIM in December 2015, the Company raised GBP30 million by way of a placing of new ordinary shares and a convertible loan. The new funds will accelerate the development of two leading product candidates which are in, or expected to commence shortly, Phase III clinical trials, targeting diseases of cortisol deficiency; Chronocort(R) , to be used for Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia ("CAH") in adults, and Infacort(R) , to be used for Adrenal Insufficiency ("AI"), including CAH in children. The lead product candidate, Infacort(R) , is anticipated to receive its first regulatory approval in Europe towards the end of 2017.

For further information about Diurnal, please visit www.diurnal.co.uk

This information is provided by RNS

The company news service from the London Stock Exchange

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April 12, 2016 07:15 ET (11:15 GMT)