Grant of Options

Grant of Options

Tuesday 20th December 2011 - Optimal Payments Plc (LSE: OPAY), announces the grant of options to its employees as part of the Company's ongoing retention and incentivisation programme.

On 8 December 2011 the Company granted a total of 1,213,500 options to eligible employees over the Company's ordinary shares of 0.01 pence. The options were granted under the two share options plans operated by the Company as follows:

·; A total of 1,014,700 options were granted under the Optimal Payments Plc Share Option Plan (the "Unapproved Plan").

·; A further 198,800 options were granted under the UK-approved Optimal Payments Plc Approved Share Option Plan (the "Approved Plan").

The options under both the Unapproved Plan and the Approved Plan were granted at an exercise price of 56.67 pence, being the average of the mid-closing price of the Company's shares for the three trading days prior to 8 December 2011.

The period during which these options can be exercised is as follows:

Under the Unapproved Plan:

·; 1,014,700 options have a grant period of 3 ½ years from 8 December 2011, having a single vesting date on 8 December 2014, on which date all of the options granted vest. These options expire on 8 May 2015 and the last date for exercise is therefore 7 May 2015.

Under the Approved Plan:

·; 198,800 options have a grant period of 3 ½ years from 8 December 2011, having a single vesting date on 8 December 2014, on which date all of the options granted vest. These options expire on 8 May 2015 and the last date for exercise is therefore 7 May 2015.

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In accordance with the Unapproved Plan rules and with the Approved Plan rules, eligible employees have until 31 January 2012 to accept their respective option grants, following which a further announcement will be made confirming the number of options granted in total. Any options which are not accepted by the above date will lapse.

As at 16 December 2011, the Company had 126,312,376 ordinary shares in issue.

For further information contact:

Optimal Payments Plc