First Derivatives’ CEO and CFO granted 300,000 options
Publicly traded financial data analytics company First Derivatives (FD) has rewarded some of its top executives with a series of share option grants. The options only vest if the company hits certain share price and EPS growth targets over the next four years.
FD (AIM:FDP.L) made a regulatory filing indicating that its CEO Seamus Keating (pictured above) was granted options over 250,000 ordinary shares, while CFO Graham Ferguson was granted options over 75,000 ordinary shares. The options were issued under the company’s Share Option Plan.
In each case, the option exercise price is 2,595p (i.e., the company’s share price at the time of issue). The options will vest after four years on the achievement of what FD called “challenging” total shareholder return (TSR) and earnings per share (EPS) growth targets. Both TSR and EPS targets are independent of each other and are weighted 50:50 for any award vesting.
For the TSR portion, 50% will vest for threshold performance, which is defined as 50% total shareholder return over the four-year performance period. This translates to a CAGR of nearly 11%. Vesting then increases on a straight-line basis to full vesting for TSR of 100% (i.e., doubling of value over the four-year performance period, or a CAGR of nearly 19%).
For the EPS growth portion, 50% will vest for threshold performance, which is defined as 75% EPS growth over the four-year performance period, or a CAGR of 15%. Vesting will increase on a straight-line basis to full vesting for EPS growth of 100%.
The option grants are in line with the company’s remuneration policy and are subject to typical holding, malus and clawback provisions.
FD has made a number of senior executive and board appointments over the past few weeks. Earlier this month FD hired former GFT and SuperDerivatives exec David Collins as Managing Director – Managed Services & Consulting, and added BMC Software CEO Ayman Sayed to its board. In June FD added former Lloyds executive David Humphries as the company’s new COO.