Cabot Energy PLC Exercise of options and award of options (2089O)

TIDMCAB

RNS Number : 2089O

Cabot Energy PLC

17 August 2017

Cabot Energy Plc

("Cabot Energy" or "the Company")

Exercise of options and award of options

Cabot Energy (AIM: CAB) announces that options to acquire ordinary shares in the Company, at a cost of the nominal value of the shares ("Options"), have been exercised by certain directors and employees of the Company as set out below and in addition the Company has awarded Options as set out below.

Exercise of Options

On 16 August 2017, certain directors and employees of the Company exercised previously issued Options over a total of 1,136,669 ordinary shares in the Company ("Ordinary Shares") under the Cabot Energy Incentive Plan ("CEIP"). Following the exercise of the Options and Admission, as defined below, Keith Bush and Nick Morgan, Chief Executive Officer and Finance Director of the Company respectively, will hold the following interests in the Company:

 
                     Current     No. of Ordinary      New holding of 
                     holding           Shares to      Ordinary Shares 
                 of Ordinary         be acquired 
                      Shares    through exercise 
                                      of Options 
-------------  -------------  ------------------  --------------------- 
                                                    Number   Percentage 
                                                              of issued 
                                                               Ordinary 
                                                                 Shares 
-------------  -------------  ------------------  --------  ----------- 
 Keith 
  Bush               590,735             209,644   800,379        0.25% 
 Nick Morgan         720,522             167,715   888,237        0.28% 
-------------  -------------  ------------------  --------  ----------- 
 

Issue of equity and Total Voting Rights

Cabot Energy has applied to the London Stock Exchange for 1,136,669 new Ordinary Shares (the "New Ordinary Shares") to be admitted to trading on AIM ("Admission"). It is expected that Admission will become effective at 8.00 a.m. on 22 August 2017. The New Ordinary Shares will, following admission, rank pari passu in all respects with the existing issued Ordinary Shares.

On Admission, the Company's issued share capital will be 315,829,037 which also represents the total number of voting rights. Shareholders should use this figure 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 the Company under the FCA's Disclosure Guidance and Transparency Rules.

Option awards in relation to 2016

Under the terms of the CEIP, certain staff were awarded Options and directors received Options as a partial substitute for a cash bonus, in relation to performance during 2016, as follows:

 
                     No. of 
                    options 
                    awarded 
---------------  ---------- 
 Keith Bush         857,142 
 Nick Morgan        857,142 
 Paul Lafferty      857,142 
 Staff            1,495,000 
---------------  ---------- 
 

The options awarded to Keith Bush, Nick Morgan and Paul Lafferty vest three years after the award. The options awarded to staff members vest equally over three years after award. All options lapse ten years after award.

Salary substitution grant

As announced on 12 November 2015, certain senior management agreed to further reduce their salaries, in addition to a previously agreed reduction, from 1 November 2015 in exchange for the issue of options, under the terms of the CEIP. The Remuneration Committee decided that this agreement should cease on 31 December 2016 for executive directors and senior management and 1 May 2017 for non-executive directors.

The award under this agreement for the two month period from 1 November 2016 until 31 December 2016 was calculated using the salary foregone divided by 3.5 pence, which was the placing and open offer price used in the equity issue in December 2016, since the volume weighted average price during this period was lower. The award to non-executive directors from 1 January 2017 to 30 April 2017 was calculated using the fees foregone divided by 4.46 pence, which was the volume weighted average price of the Company's ordinary shares during this period.

The options granted in accordance with the agreements are as follows:

 
                   No. of options 
                       awarded 
                    1 Nov     1 Jan 
                    16 to     17 to 
                   31 Dec    30 Apr 
                       16        17 
---------------  --------  -------- 
 Jon Murphy        47,633    74,804 
 Iain Lanaghan     23,828    37,420 
 Keith Bush       214,285         - 
 Nick Morgan      190,514         - 
 Paul Lafferty     95,257         - 
---------------  --------  -------- 
 

All these options vest three years after award and expire ten years after award.

In addition, 52,381 options were granted to a staff member in relation to a reduction in salary taken from 1 October 2016 to 1 February 2017, again under the terms of the CEIP. These options vest equally over three years following the award.

All salary substitution schemes have now ceased. Full fees for non-executive directors and salaries for certain staff have been reinstated. The executive directors and senior management however have agreed to continue on salaries below their original contractual levels. The Remuneration Committee has decided to make a one-time award in recognition of this salary reduction, which has been taken since 1 March 2015. The amount of Options issued in respect of this period was calculated using the salary foregone from 1 March 2015 to 31 December 2016 divided by 3.97 pence, which was the volume weighted average price of the Company's ordinary shares during this period.

 
                     No. of 
                    options 
                    awarded 
 Keith Bush       2,307,240 
 Nick Morgan      1,614,699 
 Paul Lafferty      876,566 
---------------  ---------- 
 

There is no intention by the Remuneration Committee to make any further award of Options in relation to reductions in salary.

Total options in issue

Following Admission and the issue of Options as detailed above, the number of Options awarded or granted to Directors, senior management and staff will total 18,594,097 which will represent 5.89 per cent. of the Company's issued share capital. The total number of Options now awarded or granted to persons discharging managerial responsibilities are as follows:

 
                     No. of 
                    options 
                    awarded 
 Jon Murphy         460,932 
 Iain Lanaghan      230,579 
 Keith Bush       6,234,776 
 Nick Morgan      5,099,538 
 Paul Lafferty    3,422,555 
---------------  ---------- 
 

-Ends-

For further information please contact:

Cabot Energy Plc Tel: [phone]

Keith Bush, Chief Executive Officer

Nick Morgan, Finance Director

Stockdale Securities Limited (Nomad and Joint Broker) Tel: [phone]

Antonio Bossi

David Coaten

FirstEnergy Capital LLP (Joint Broker) Tel: [phone]

Jonathan Wright

FTI Consulting Tel: [phone]

Edward Westropp

Note to Editors:

Cabot Energy is an oil and gas company focused on production led growth. The Company is undertaking a redevelopment and production project in north west Alberta and has a broader portfolio of exploration and appraisal opportunities in countries of relatively low political risk, primarily Italy. Comprehensive information on Cabot Energy and its oil and gas operations, including press releases, annual reports and interim reports are available from Cabot Energy's website: www.cabot-energy.com

This information is provided by RNS

The company news service from the London Stock Exchange

END

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August 17, 2017 02:01 ET (06:01 GMT)