1st Apr 2021 14:16
1 April 2021
Sumo Group plc
("Sumo Group" or the "Company")
Exercise of Share Options and Directors' Dealings
Sumo Group announces that Carl Cavers, Chief Executive Officer, David Wilton, Chief Financial Officer and Paul Porter, Chief Operating Officer have exercised options to acquire further ordinary shares of 1 penny each in the Company ("Ordinary Shares") pursuant to the terms of the Company's Long-Term Incentive Plan ("LTIP"). These options were awarded in March 2018 and vested on 31 March 2021 based on the total shareholder return and earnings per share performance conditions measured over the Company's financial years 2018, 2019 and 2020.
Following the exercise of these options each Director has sold Ordinary Shares, in part to meet the tax liability arising from the exercise. This sale took place on 31 March 2021 at a price of 351.6889 pence per Ordinary Share and the shares were purchased by the Company's Employee Benefit Trust ("EBT").
Details of the transactions undertaken are set out below:
Director
| No of Ordinary Shares over which options have been exercised
| No of Ordinary Shares sold
| Resultant direct and indirect interests in Ordinary Shares following the exercise and sale
| Direct and indirect interests in Ordinary Shares held as a percentage of the Company's issued ordinary share capital
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Carl Cavers | 752,522 | 248,319 | 5,155,543 | 3.01% |
David Wilton | 554,985 | 195,042 | 696,876 | 0.40% |
Paul Porter | 547,732 | 391,949 | 4,660,931 | 2.72% |
Subsequent to this exercise and sale, David Wilton transferred 359,943 Ordinary Shares to accounts held jointly with his wife, and 113,736 of such Ordinary Shares became subject to a trust in favour of other family members.
Employee option exercise and sale
Options granted to a number of other participants in the LTIP also vested and were exercised on 31 March and 490,436 Ordinary Shares necessary to satisfy these exercises were issued to the EBT on the same day. The EBT has also purchased shares from these individuals, at the price of 351.6889 pence per Ordinary Share, where they wished to sell to meet tax liabilities or otherwise.
EBT
Following these transactions, the EBT holds 1,554,077 Ordinary Shares to be held on the terms of the trust to satisfy the vesting of options under the LTIP in the future.
The notification below, made in accordance with the requirements of the EU Market Abuse Regulation (as retained in UK law), provides further detail.
Notification and public disclosure of transactions by persons discharging managerial responsibilities and persons closely associated with them:
1 | Details of the person discharging managerial responsibilities / person closely associated | |
a) | Name | Carl Cavers |
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2 | Reason for the notification |
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a) | Position/status | Chief Executive Officer |
b) | Initial notification /Amendment | Initial notification |
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3 | Details of the issuer, emission allowance market participant, auction platform, auctioneer or auction monitor | |
a) | Name | Sumo Group plc |
b) | LEI | 213800LTZXJCG5QKIM14 |
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4 | Details of the transaction(s): section to be repeated for (i) each type of instrument; (ii) each type of transaction; (iii) each date; and (iv) each place where transactions have been conducted | ||
a) | Description of the financial instrument, type of instrument | Ordinary shares of £0.01
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| Identification code | SUMO | |
b) | Nature of transaction | Option exercise | |
c) | Price(s) and volume(s) | Price | Volume |
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| nil | 752,522 |
d) | Aggregated information - Aggregated volume - Price |
N/A | |
e) | Date of the transaction | 31 March 2021 | |
f) | Place of the transaction | Private transaction | |
1 | Details of the person discharging managerial responsibilities / person closely associated | |
a) | Name | Carl Cavers |
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2 | Reason for the notification |
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a) | Position/status | Chief Executive Officer |
b) | Initial notification /Amendment | Initial notification |
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3 | Details of the issuer, emission allowance market participant, auction platform, auctioneer or auction monitor | |
a) | Name | Sumo Group plc |
b) | LEI | 213800LTZXJCG5QKIM14 |
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4 | Details of the transaction(s): section to be repeated for (i) each type of instrument; (ii) each type of transaction; (iii) each date; and (iv) each place where transactions have been conducted | ||
a) | Description of the financial instrument, type of instrument | Ordinary shares of £0.01
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| Identification code | SUMO | |
b) | Nature of transaction | Sale of shares to meet tax liability among other things | |
c) | Price(s) and volume(s) | Price | Volume |
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| 351.6889p | 248,319 |
d) | Aggregated information - Aggregated volume - Price |
N/A | |
e) | Date of the transaction | 31 March 2021 | |
f) | Place of the transaction | AIM | |
1 | Details of the person discharging managerial responsibilities / person closely associated | |
a) | Name | David Wilton |
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2 | Reason for the notification |
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a) | Position/status | Chief Financial Officer |
b) | Initial notification /Amendment | Initial notification |
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3 | Details of the issuer, emission allowance market participant, auction platform, auctioneer or auction monitor | |
a) | Name | Sumo Group plc |
b) | LEI | 213800LTZXJCG5QKIM14 |
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4 | Details of the transaction(s): section to be repeated for (i) each type of instrument; (ii) each type of transaction; (iii) each date; and (iv) each place where transactions have been conducted | ||
a) | Description of the financial instrument, type of instrument | Ordinary shares of £0.01
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| Identification code | SUMO | |
b) | Nature of transaction | Option exercise | |
c) | Price(s) and volume(s) | Price | Volume |
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| nil | 554,985 |
d) | Aggregated information - Aggregated volume - Price |
N/A | |
e) | Date of the transaction | 31 March 2021 | |
f) | Place of the transaction | Private transaction | |
1 | Details of the person discharging managerial responsibilities / person closely associated | |
a) | Name | David Wilton Helen Wilton George Wilton |
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2 | Reason for the notification |
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a) | Position/status | Chief Financial Officer PDMR's PCAs
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b) | Initial notification /Amendment | Initial notification |
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3 | Details of the issuer, emission allowance market participant, auction platform, auctioneer or auction monitor | |
a) | Name | Sumo Group plc |
b) | LEI | 213800LTZXJCG5QKIM14 |
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4 | Details of the transaction(s): section to be repeated for (i) each type of instrument; (ii) each type of transaction; (iii) each date; and (iv) each place where transactions have been conducted | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
a) | Description of the financial instrument, type of instrument | Ordinary shares of £0.01
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| Identification code | SUMO | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
b)
c) | Nature of transaction
Price(s) and volume(s) |
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d) | Aggregated information - Aggregated volume - Price |
N/A | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
e) | Date of the transaction | 31 March 2021 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
f) | Place of the transaction | AIM for transaction 4.b.i, private transactions for 4.b.ii - vi | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
1 | Details of the person discharging managerial responsibilities / person closely associated | |
a) | Name | Paul Porter |
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2 | Reason for the notification |
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a) | Position/status | Chief Operating Officer |
b) | Initial notification /Amendment | Initial notification |
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3 | Details of the issuer, emission allowance market participant, auction platform, auctioneer or auction monitor | |
a) | Name | Sumo Group plc |
b) | LEI | 213800LTZXJCG5QKIM14 |
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4 | Details of the transaction(s): section to be repeated for (i) each type of instrument; (ii) each type of transaction; (iii) each date; and (iv) each place where transactions have been conducted | ||
a) | Description of the financial instrument, type of instrument | Ordinary shares of £0.01
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| Identification code | SUMO | |
b) | Nature of transaction | Option exercise | |
c) | Price(s) and volume(s) | Price | Volume |
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| nil | 547,732 |
d) | Aggregated information - Aggregated volume - Price |
N/A | |
e) | Date of the transaction | 31 March 2021 | |
f) | Place of the transaction | Private transaction | |
1 | Details of the person discharging managerial responsibilities / person closely associated | |
a) | Name | Paul Porter |
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2 | Reason for the notification |
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a) | Position/status | Chief Operating Officer |
b) | Initial notification /Amendment | Initial notification |
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3 | Details of the issuer, emission allowance market participant, auction platform, auctioneer or auction monitor | |
a) | Name | Sumo Group plc |
b) | LEI | 213800LTZXJCG5QKIM14 |
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4 | Details of the transaction(s): section to be repeated for (i) each type of instrument; (ii) each type of transaction; (iii) each date; and (iv) each place where transactions have been conducted | ||
a) | Description of the financial instrument, type of instrument | Ordinary shares of £0.01
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| Identification code | SUMO | |
b) | Nature of transaction | Sale of shares to meet tax liability among other things | |
c) | Price(s) and volume(s) | Price | Volume |
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| 351.6889p | 391,949 |
d) | Aggregated information - Aggregated volume - Price |
N/A | |
e) | Date of the transaction | 31 March 2021 | |
f) | Place of the transaction | AIM | |
Enquiries: | |
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Sumo Group plc | Via Belvedere Communications |
Carl Cavers, Chief Executive Officer | Tel: +44(0) 7715 769 078 |
David Wilton, Chief Financial Officer |
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Zeus Capital Limited (Nominated Adviser & Broker) |
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Nick Cowles / Andrew Jones | Tel: +44 (0) 161 831 1512 |
Ben Robertson / John Goold | Tel: +44 (0) 203 829 5000 |
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Investec Corporate & Investment Banking (Joint Broker) |
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David Flin | Tel: +44(0)207 597 5970 |
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Belvedere Communications Limited |
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Cat Valentine ([email protected]) | Tel: +44 (0) 7715 769 078 |
Keeley Clarke ([email protected]) | Tel: +44 (0) 7967 816 525 |
Llew Angus ([email protected]) | Tel: +44 (0) 7407 023 147 |
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About Sumo Group - www.sumogroupplc.com
Sumo Group's businesses provide acclaimed development, design and publishing services to the video games and entertainment industries from studios in the UK, India, Canada, the US, and Poland.
Sumo Digital, as the Group's primary business, is one of the UK's largest independent developers of AAA-rated video games, having studios in Sheffield, Newcastle, Nottingham, Leamington Spa, Warrington and Pune, India. The business has acquired three studios since IPO, which operate under their own names, BAFTA award-winning The Chinese Room in Brighton, Red Kite Games in Leeds, Lab42 in Leamington Spa and PixelAnt Games in Wroclaw, Poland. Sumo Digital provides turnkey and co-development solutions to a global blue-chip client base.
Pipeworks is an innovative, well-established, and respected US video games developer based in Eugene, Oregon. It provides full development, co-development, and live operations to premier video game publishers and other partners.
Atomhawk is a multi-award-winning visual design company, with studios in Newcastle and in Vancouver (Canada), servicing the games, film, and visual effects industries.
Secret Mode is a video games publisher, focused on delivering fresh and new gaming experiences to players and building expansive and fulfilling communities around those games. It will publish titles developed within Sumo Group and also by independent developers.
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SUMO.L