MIKKO KOSKIMIES INVESTS IN SHARES OF EQ PLC AS PART OF THE MANAGEMENT INCENTIVE SCHEME
9/4/2012 1:40 AM EST
eQ Oyj
Company Announcement
MIKKO KOSKIMIES INVESTS IN SHARES OF EQ PLC AS PART OF THE MANAGEMENT INCENTIVE
SCHEME
eQ PLC STOCK EXCHANGE RELEASE
4 September 2012, at 8:40 am
MIKKO KOSKIMIES INVESTS IN SHARES OF EQ PLC AS PART OF THE MANAGEMENT INCENTIVE
SCHEME
The Board of Directors of eQ Asset Management Ltd, a subsidiary of eQ Plc (eQ),
has today appointed Mikko Koskimies, M.Sc. (Econ.) as the new Managing Director
of eQ Asset Management Ltd as of 1 October 2012. The Board of eQ has also
appointed Mikko Koskimies as a member of the eQ Group's Management Team from
the same day onward.
The Board of eQ has on the same occasion decided upon a new shareholding scheme
for the eQ Group. The purpose of this scheme is to incentivise Mikko Koskimies
by inducing him to buy and hold shares in eQ Plc, and thus seek to increase the
shareholder value of eQ in the long term.
For the purpose of holding shares, a share issue will be directed to a company
wholly owned by Mikko Koskimies. The subscription of shares will be financed by
capital from the company wholly owned by Mikko Koskimies, and by a loan issued
by eQ to the company. Thus, Mikko Koskimies and his company will genuinely bear
shareholders' risk with respect to the subscribed shares.
In order to implement the above share investment scheme, the Board of eQ
decided, based on the authorisation received from the annual general meeting of
eQ held on 13 March 2012, to carry out today a share issue against payment
directed to the company wholly owned by Mikko Koskimies. Through the share
issue, a total of 1,200,000 shares were offered for subscription in deviation
from the shareholders' pre-emptive subscription right. eQ has a weighty
financial reason to deviate from the shareholders' pre-emptive right, as the
shares will be issued to the company wholly owned by Koskimies in order to
incentivise Koskimies and enhance the commitment as one of the Group's key
persons.
The subscription price per share of the new shares is the volume-weighted
average price of the company's share on OMX Nordic Exchange Helsinki Oy for 20
consecutive trading days immediately preceding the meeting of the Board that
decided on the issuance of the shares, i.e. EUR 1.67 per share.
The company wholly owned by Mikko Koskimies has today subscribed for all the
offered shares and undertaken to pay the subscription price by 14 September
2012. The Board has approved the share subscription. As a result of the share
subscription, Mikko Koskimies owns approximately 3.48 % of the shares of eQ
through his holding company.
An amount corresponding to the subscription price of the new shares, EUR
2,004,000 will be entered into eQ's invested unrestricted equity reserve.
Rights to dividends and other shareholder rights will commence on the day when
the new shares have been entered into the Trade Register and the shareholders'
register of the Company. The shares will be entered onto the subscriber's
book-entry account and will become subject to public trading on NASDAQ OMX
Helsinki Oy after the shares have been entered into the Trade Register.
Due to the share issue, the amount of shares of eQ will grow from the present
33,297,198 shares to 34,497,198 shares. The share capital will not change as a
consequence of the share issue. The shares subscribed for in the share issue
represent approximately 3.48 % of the shares and votes of eQ after the share
issue.
As part of the arrangement, eQ's board has today decided to grant the company
wholly owned by Mikko Koskimies an interest-bearing loan of a maximum of EUR
1,336,000 in order to finance the subscription of eQ shares. The loan will be
repaid in full at the latest five years from being granted. The company has the
right to repay the loan prematurely at any time. The transfer of the shares
owned by the company wholly owned by Mikko Koskimies is restricted for three
years during the duration of the scheme.
Granting option rights to Mikko Koskimies
eQ's Board has today decided to grant Mikko Koskimies 200,000 option rights in
accordance with the Company's option programme 2010 (50,000 2010B options,
50,000 2010C options, 50,000 2010D options and 50,000 2010E options).
The terms and conditions of the option programme 2010 were published in a stock
exchange release on 18 August 2010 and are available in their entirety on the
Company's website www.eQ.fi.
* * *
Janne Larma, CEO of eQ Plc, had the following comment: 'I'm very happy to have
Mikko Koskimies start work at eQ Asset Management's helm. With this in mind, we
wish to incentivise Mikko and foster commitment in the long term, which is why
we have agreed with him on the share arrangement and issue of options mentioned
in this notification.'
Helsinki, 4 September 2012
eQ Plc
The Board of Directors
Additional information: Janne Larma, CEO, tel. +358 40 500 4366
Distribution: NASDAQ OMX Helsinki, www.eQ.fi
eQ Group is a Finnish group of companies that specialises in asset management
and corporate finance operations. The Group offers services related to mutual
funds, private equity funds and hedge funds as well as traditional asset
management for institutions and individuals. The assets managed by the Group
total approximately EUR 3.6 billion. In addition, Advium Corporate Finance Ltd,
which is part of the Group, offers services related to mergers and
acquisitions, real estate transactions and equity capital markets.
More information about the Group is available on our website at www.eQ.fi.