Grant of Options/Director dealing

PCI-PAL PLC (AIM: PCIP), the customer engagement specialist that secures and protects payment card data for companies handling payments by phone, today announces the grant of share options to a director of the Company and to other employees of the Group totalling of 1,621,667 ordinary shares of 1 pence each ("Ordinary Shares").

The Company has agreed to change the share option package of James Barham, a director of the Company and PDMR, as part of his relocation with his family to the North American operations. 

Due to the fact that Mr Barham was issued with 300,000 EMI share options on the 25^th May 2017 at a discount to the share price of the Company at the date of grant, this leads to a potential penalty tax situation under US tax regulations.   Depending on the share price performance this penalty tax could run to several hundreds of thousands of pounds.   It has therefore been agreed with Mr Barham that he will forfeit his existing 300,000 EMI Share Options, with no benefit obtained, and these shall be replaced with 550,000 new unapproved share options issued at the current share price of 28.5 pence per share ⁽¹⁾.   The uplift in the number of options has been calculated to compensate Mr Barham for the additional tax he will face on exercising the option. The terms and conditions of these options will match those originally granted at 25^th May 2017. 

Following this grant, James Barham holds share options over 550,000 shares and holds 71,258 Ordinary Shares.

One other employee who has also agreed to relocate to the US to help deliver the Group's strategy in North America has also forfeited his original EMI option grant and has these have been replaced with new unapproved share options issued in the same terms as Mr Barham.

In addition to the above grants, a further 980,000 share options have been issued to employees of the Group at the same exercise price. The Company considers it important to attract, retain, and incentivise our employees through share incentive arrangements and to align them with shareholders to create long term value.

Following this announcement, the total number of options granted and outstanding as at today's date represents 4,476,667 shares or 10.48% of the current issued share capital of the Company. 

⁽¹⁾ being the closing mid-market price published by the London Stock Exchange prior to the date of grant

This announcement contains inside information for the purposes of Article 7 of Regulation 596/2014.

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About PCI Pal:

PCI Pal is a Payment Card Industry-Data Security Standard ("PCI DSS") Level 1 certified supplier of contact centre payment solutions and services, with operations in Europe and North America, enabling organisations to take customer payments securely over the phone, and to de-risk their business from the threat of data loss and cybercrime. 

PCI Pal solutions have been procured by more than 70 organisations, many of which are global businesses in the retail, services, and utilities sectors, thereby ensuring they meet industry rules and regulations governing customer data protection.

To understand our core services better please view our video on https://www.pcipal.com/en/solutions/agent-assist/