Director/PDMR Dealing - Grant of Options
05/12/2023 10:15
For best results when printing this announcement, please click on link below:
http://newsfile.refinitiv.com/getnewsfile/v1/story?guid=urn:newsml:reuters.com:20231205:nRSE7319Va&default-theme=true
RNS Number : 7319V Hotel Chocolat Group PLC 05 December 2023
5 December 2023
Hotel Chocolat Group plc
("Hotel Chocolat", the "Company" or the "Group")
Director/PDMR Dealing - Grant of Options
The Company announces that on 4 December 2023 it granted an option over
416,667 ordinary shares of 0.1p in the Company ("Ordinary Shares") that it was
contractually committed to grant to Chief Financial Officer, Jon Akehurst, who
is a director and PDMR of the Company (the "Option"). The Option was granted
pursuant to the Hotel Chocolat Group plc 2016 Long Term Incentive Plan (the
"Plan").
In the normal course, the Option would have been granted following publication
of the Group's FY2023 preliminary results. However, the Company was in a
closed period at that time due to the existence of inside information about
the recommended cash acquisition of the Company by Hive Bidco, Inc, which was
announced on 16 November 2023. Accordingly, as agreed with Hive Bidco, Inc.,
the award of the Option to the Chief Financial Officer, together with the
award of Options over a further 152,000 Ordinary Shares to other senior
managers who were internally promoted or recruited into the Group in recent
months, has now been made following that announcement.
The Option has been granted subject to the same performance conditions as
apply to the 2021 LTIP awards described in the Company's Annual Report and
Accounts 2023 but, subject to the scheme of arrangement by which the proposed
acquisition of the Company will be effected becoming unconditional, will vest
and become exercisable in full at that time.
The Option has an exercise price of 0.1 pence per Ordinary Share and is
subject to the Rules of the Plan.
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 Jonathan Akehurst
2 Reason for the notification
a) Position/status Chief Financial Officer
b) Initial notification /Amendment Initial Notification
3 Details of the issuer, emission allowance market participant, auction
platform, auctioneer or auction monitor
a) Name Hotel Chocolat Group plc
b) LEI 213800B4D3J15PZHVY29
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
Option over Ordinary shares of 0.1 pence each
Identification code
ISIN: GB00BYZC3B04
b) Nature of the transaction Grant of option pursuant to the Hotel Chocolat Group plc 2016 Long Term
Incentive Plan
c) Price(s) and volume(s)
Price(s) Volume(s)
Nil 416,667
d) Aggregated information
N/A
- Aggregated volume
- Price
e) Date of the transaction 2023-12-04
f) Place of the transaction Outside a trading venue
d)
Aggregated information
- Aggregated volume
- Price
N/A
e)
Date of the transaction
2023-12-04
f)
Place of the transaction
Outside a trading venue
For further information:
Hotel Chocolat Group plc c/o Citigate + 44 (0) 20 7638 9571
Angus Thirlwell, Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer
Jon Akehurst, Chief Financial Officer
Liberum Capital Limited - Nominated Adviser and Broker + 44 (0) 20 3100 2222
Dru Danford
Edward Thomas
Miquela Bezuidenhoudt
Citigate Dewe Rogerson - Financial PR + 44 (0) 20 7638 9571
Angharad Couch
Ellen Wilton
Alex Winch
In accordance with Rule 26.1 of the Takeover Code, a copy of this announcement
will be available, subject to certain restrictions relating to persons
resident in restricted jurisdictions, on Hotel Chocolat's website at
https://www.hotelchocolat.com/uk/investor-relations-offer.html by no later
than 12 noon (London time) on the business day following the date of this
announcement. The content of the website referred to in this announcement is
not incorporated into and does not form part of this announcement.
Notes to Editors:
Hotel Chocolat is a premium British chocolate maker with a strong and
distinctive D2C brand. The business was founded by Angus Thirlwell and Peter
Harris, who are still executives within the business, and has traded under the
Hotel Chocolat brand since 2003. The Group is unusual in being a grower
(organic cacao farm in Saint Lucia), a manufacturer (Cambridgeshire) and
owning its extensive direct to consumer channels (branded stores, websites).
The Group was admitted to trading on AIM in 2016.
This information is provided by RNS, the news service of the London Stock Exchange. RNS is approved by the Financial Conduct Authority to act as a Primary Information Provider in the United Kingdom. Terms and conditions relating to the use and distribution of this information may apply. For further information, please contact
rns@lseg.com (mailto:rns@lseg.com)
or visit
www.rns.com (http://www.rns.com/)
.
RNS may use your IP address to confirm compliance with the terms and conditions, to analyse how you engage with the information contained in this communication, and to share such analysis on an anonymised basis with others as part of our commercial services. For further information about how RNS and the London Stock Exchange use the personal data you provide us, please see our
Privacy Policy (https://www.lseg.com/privacy-and-cookie-policy)
. END DSHTABMTMTBMBIJ