Employee Share Option Scheme
At the year end date, 28,047 (2022: 24,877) options on Ordinary Shares were outstanding. Of these, 7,727 (2022: 13,077) options have an exercise price of £20.00 per share, whilst 20,320 (2022: 11,800) options have an exercise price of £87.74 per share.
Of these 28,047 outstanding options:
- 537 had vested during the year to 31st March 2021
- 325 had vested in the year to 31st March 2022
- 7,185 had vested in the year to 31st March 2023
- 1,400 will vest in the year to 31st March 2024
- 6,500 will vest in the year to 31st March 2025
- 12,100 will vest in the year to 31st March 2026
11,000 (2022: 10,000) new options on Ordinary Shares were granted during the year at an exercise price of £87.74 per share. During the year, 4,449 (2022: 6,110) options on Ordinary Shares were exercised at a price of £20.00 per share, whilst 3,381 (2022: 6,602) lapsed during the year. Of the options exercised during the year, the company immediately bought back 1,920 (2022: 1,731) of these Ordinary Shares which were then immediately cancelled. A further 274 (2022: 4,379) Ordinary Shares were repurchased by the company from existing shareholders, and immediately cancelled, in order to preserve the Share Capital of the company.
Treasury Shares
During the year, 25,278 shares were repurchased from an existing shareholder and held in Treasury, to be used as a share option pool for future option exercises in the Employee Share Option Scheme.