Following its rejuvenation in the form of a £17 million cash injection from prominent FX industry figure Charles-Henri Sabet, London Capital Group (LON:LCG) has today announced that it has funded its Employee Benefit Trust (“the EBT”) through an intercompany loan of £3,165,750 between London Capital Group Limited and the EBT.
This loan facilitated the purchase of 9.0 million ordinary shares at a price of 35p per ordinary share in LCG from GLIO Holdings Limited (“GLIO”) to fund the EBT for any future issue of share options to employees as part of long-term performance related incentive schemes. The Company also transferred 45,000 ordinary shares from treasury to the EBT.
This transaction follows two recent transfers of ownership of LCG shares, one in which Mr. Sabet personally purchased £227.500 worth of shares in the company, shortly after LCG itself invested in 45,000 of its own publicly traded shares.
The EBT was set up to provide long-term performance-related incentives to employees whereby the EBT owns ordinary shares in the Company jointly with employees. The EBT helps with the retention of key employees who may add long term value to the Company without dilution to the shareholder base. The issue of any shares to employees held in the existing EBT does not alter the total number of ordinary shares of the Company in issue.
The 9.0 million ordinary shares sold by GLIO to the EBT were today acquired by GLIO, under the terms of agreements between GLIO and certain existing shareholders of the Company allowing GLIO to acquire a maximum of 9.1 million ordinary shares, as per various announcements published by LCG on 8and 9 July 2014.
Following the transfer of 45,000 ordinary shares, LCG no longer holds any shares in treasury and the total voting rights in the Company equal its issued share capital of 55,800,908 ordinary shares. Following the financing, the EBT holds 12,480,000 ordinary shares in LCG representing 22.4 per cent of the Company’s issued share capital.
The Company’s board of directors considers, having consulted with its nominated advisor, that the terms of the transaction are fair and reasonable for shareholders in the Company.
For the official announcement from LCG, click here.