3rd Dec 2015 17:19
3 December 2015
Vernalis plc
("Vernalis" or the "Company")
Launch of 2015 Sharesave Plan
Vernalis plc is pleased to announce that, on 2 December 2015, it launched a new Sharesave Plan (previously known as a Save As You Earn or SAYE Scheme) for all UK employees, under which employees have been offered the opportunity to participate in the future growth of the Company via share option arrangements.
Eligible employees were invited to subscribe for options over the Company's Ordinary Shares of 1 pence each ('Ordinary Shares') with an exercise price of 57.2 pence, a 20 per cent discount to the closing price of the Company's Ordinary Shares on 5 November 2015, the trading day before the invitation to participate was made. The options have a contract start date of 1 February 2016 and are exercisable between 1 February 2019 and 31 July 2019.
A total of 60 employees elected to participate, and pursuant to these elections, a total of 1,211,509 options over Ordinary Shares have been issued, equating to 0.27 per cent of the current issued share capital ('ISC').
Directors, Ian Garland and David Mackney, have both elected to participate in the Sharesave Plan and are included in the total figures above.
As a result of this option grant, the Directors' interests in options over Ordinary Shares are as follows:
Director | Options granted over Ordinary Shares under 2015 Sharesave Plan | Options held under other option plans | Total interest held under options | Total interest held under options as percentage of ISC |
Ian Garland
| 15,734 | 10,994,440 | 11,010,174 | 2.47 |
David Mackney | 15,734 | 7,475,767 | 7,491,501 | 1.68 |
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Enquiries:
Vernalis: | +44 (0) 118 938 0015 |
Ian Garland, Chief Executive Officer David Mackney, Chief Financial Officer
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Canaccord Genuity Limited (Nominated Adviser): | +44 (0) 20 7523 8350 |
Dr Julian Feneley Henry Fitzgerald-O'Connor Emma Gabriel
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Shore Capital (Joint Broker): | +44 (0)20 7408 4090 |
Bidhi Bhoma Toby Gibbs
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FTI Consulting: | +44 (0) 20 3727 1000 |
Ben Atwell Simon Conway Stephanie Cuthbert |
Notes to Editors
About Vernalis
Vernalis is a revenue generating, commercial stage pharmaceutical company with significant expertise in drug development. The Group has three approved products: Tuzistra™ XR targeting the US prescription cough cold market; MOXATAG®, a once-a-day formulation of the antibiotic, amoxicillin, indicated for the treatment of tonsillitis and/or pharyngitis secondary to Streptococcus pyogenes in adult and paediatric patients 12 years of age or older; and frovatriptan for the acute treatment of migraine. It has an exclusive licensing agreement to develop and commercialise multiple novel products focussed on the US prescription cough cold market as well as eight programmes in its NCE development pipeline. Vernalis has also significant expertise in fragment and structure based drug discovery which it leverages to enter into collaborations with larger pharmaceutical companies. The Company's technologies, capabilities and products have been endorsed over the last five years by collaborations with leading pharmaceutical companies, including AKP, Biogen Idec, Endo, GSK, Genentech, Lundbeck, Menarini, Novartis, Servier Taisho and Tris.
For further information about Vernalis, please visit www.vernalis.com
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Vernalis PLC