Share Issue/Capital Change • Apr 19, 2022
Share Issue/Capital Change
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Directors' adoption: [ ] May 2022
Shareholder approval: [ ] May 2022
Expiry date: [earlier of approval date and adoption date] 2032
SLAUGHTER AND MAY One Bunhill Row London EC1Y 8YY
Ref: PJC/IAB/CXUS
574006462
| 1 | Invitations to apply for Options 4 | |
|---|---|---|
| 2 | Scaling down 6 | |
| 3 | Grant of Options 7 | |
| 4 | Limits 7 | |
| 5 | Exercise of Options 9 | |
| 6 | Adjustment of Options 12 | |
| 7 | Takeovers and other corporate events 13 | |
| 8 | Exchange of Options 15 | |
| 9 | Terms of employment 15 | |
| 10 | General 16 | |
| 11 | Amending the Plan 18 | |
| 12 | Governing law and jurisdiction 19 |
1
This introduction does not form part of the Plan rules. The purpose of the Plan is to provide employees of the Company and its selected Subsidiaries with an opportunity to acquire Shares in the Company (on a tax-favoured basis for employees based in the United States of America). It is intended that the Plan qualifies as an "employee stock purchase plan" under section 423 of the Code. The Exercise Price of an Option may be up to 15% below the Market Value of the Shares subject to the Option.
In these rules:
"Acquiring Company" has the meaning given to it in rule 7.3.1;
"Application Period" means the period within which an Eligible Employee may apply to receive an Option in response to an invitation to participate in the Plan, which must end before the Grant Date;
"Board" means the board of directors of the Company, or any sub-committee or person duly authorised by it;
"Business Day" means a day on which the London Stock Exchange (or, if relevant and if the Board determines, any other stock exchange nominated by the Board on which the Shares are traded) is open for the transaction of business;
"Code" means the U.S. Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended from time to time;
"Company" means 4imprint Group plc, a company incorporated in England and Wales with registered number 00177991;
"Compensation" means base salary or wages paid on each regular and recurring payday to an Eligible Employee by a Participating Company as compensation for that Eligible Employee's services to that Participating Company, before the deduction for any salary deferral contributions made by the Eligible Employee to any tax-qualified or nonqualified deferred compensation plan, including overtime, vacation pay, holiday pay, jury duty pay and funeral leave pay, but excluding bonuses, commissions, education or tuition reimbursements, imputed income arising under any group insurance or benefit programme, travel expenses, business and relocation expenses, and income received in connection with share options or other equity-based awards;
"Contribution" means the contribution agreed to be paid by a Participant under the relevant Savings Contract, which the Company may require to be stated as a percentage of Compensation;
"Control" means, in relation to a body corporate, the power of a person to secure by means of the holding of shares or the possession of voting power in or in relation to that or any other body corporate, or as a result of any powers conferred by the articles of association, or other document regulating that or any other body corporate, that the affairs of the first mentioned body corporate are conducted in accordance with the wishes of that person;
"Dealing Restrictions" means any restrictions relating to dealing in Shares imposed by law, order, regulation, Government directive or any dealing code adopted by the Company;
"Eligible Employee" means any current employee (including an executive director) of any Participating Company, excluding, as the Board may determine in respect of any invitation under the Plan, any such employee who:
"Exercise Date" has the meaning given in rule 5.8;
"Exercise Price" means the price at which each Share subject to an Option may be acquired on the exercise of that Option, which is determined by the Board and which must not, subject to rule 6, be less than:
and which may be expressed in pounds sterling, the Local Currency or such other currency as the Board may determine;
"Expected Vesting Date" means the date specified under rule 1.2.7 on which the Option will normally Vest in accordance with the Plan rules and which is no later than the last day of the Offering Period;
"Expiry Date" means [•] 2032, being the date 10 years after the earlier of the date on which the Plan is adopted by the Board and the date on which the Plan is approved by the Company's shareholders;
"Grant Date" means the date which the Board specifies for the grant of an Option which will also be the first day of the Offering Period for that Option;
and "Group" will be construed accordingly;
"Invitation Date" means the date on which invitations are issued to Eligible Employees in accordance with rule 1.1;
3
"Local Currency" means, in relation to an amount, that amount in the currency in which the Eligible Employee is paid, determined by the Board using such exchange rate as the Board may determine;
"London Stock Exchange" means the London Stock Exchange or any successor entity;
"Market Value" means:
provided that such Business Day(s) do not fall within any period when Dealing Restrictions apply and provided that such value also constitutes the "fair market value" of a Share for purposes of section 423(b)(6) of the Code;
"Offering Period" means such period of time commencing on the Grant Date of an Option as the Board may determine in its discretion. The duration of an Offering Period will be established by and may be changed by the Board; provided that in no event may an Offering Period exceed 27 months;
"Option" means a right to acquire Shares granted under the Plan;
"Option Certificate" has the meaning given in rule 3.3;
"Participant" means a person holding an Option or that person's personal representatives;
"Participating Company" means a Subsidiary which the Board has determined will be a participating company for the purposes of the Plan;
"Plan" means the plan constituted by these rules known as "The 4imprint Group plc 2022 Employee Stock Purchase Plan", as amended from time to time;
"Savings Authority" means the US banking entity chosen by the Board from time to time for the purpose of receiving Contributions under Savings Contracts;
"Savings Contract" means any savings arrangements determined by the Board under which an Eligible Employee may make Contributions in connection with the Plan;
"Savings Period" means the period (not exceeding 27 months or such other maximum as may be prescribed by the Code from time to time) determined by the Board over which an Eligible Employee may make Contributions under a Savings Contract;
"Shares" means fully paid ordinary shares in the capital of the Company;
"Subsidiary" means a corporation which is a subsidiary of the Company within the meaning of both section 1159 of the Companies Act 2006 and section 424(f) of the Code;
"Treasury Shares" has the same meaning as in Chapter 6 of Part 18 of the Companies Act 2006;
"Vesting" means in relation to an Option, the Option becoming capable of exercise in accordance with the Plan rules and "Vesting", "Vested" and "Unvested" will be construed accordingly; and
"Vesting Date" means the date on which an Option Vests.
References to any statutory provision are to that provision as amended or re-enacted from time to time (and any regulations made under it). Unless otherwise stated, references to any statutory provision are to a statue of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Unless the context otherwise requires, words in the singular will include the plural and vice versa.
Any invitation will be made in writing to the Eligible Employees determined by the Board in accordance with rule 1.1 and will include details of the following matters which will be determined by the Board:
Each invitation will be accompanied by:
An application form will be in such form as the Board may from time to time determine, but it must provide for the Eligible Employee to state:
A Participant who has applied to participate in the Plan in respect of an invitation will be deemed to have made an application for the same Contribution for subsequent invitations and subsequent Offering Periods under the Plan unless the Participant:
1.5.1 makes an application for a new Contribution amount;
No Eligible Employee will complete an application to receive an Option on a day that the Eligible Employee is subject to Dealing Restrictions and if the Company receives an application purporting to be completed on such a day, it will not take effect until such time as the Dealing Restrictions cease to apply.
Each application will provide that, in the event of scaling down in accordance with rule 2, the Board is authorised by the Eligible Employee to modify their application to reflect such scaling down.
Subject to rules 1.7 and 2, each application will be deemed to be for an Option over such number of whole Shares as can be acquired at the Exercise Price with the expected repayment under the related Savings Contract at the Expected Vesting Date.
If an application specifies a Contribution which exceeds the maximum Contribution that the Participant may make in respect of the relevant invitation, that application may be modified by the Company down to the maximum amount specified by the relevant invitation.
To the extent that valid applications are received in excess of any maximum number of Shares determined by the Board in accordance with rule 1.2.5, the Board will scale down applications in the same manner in order to eliminate the excess by:
Where applications are scaled down in accordance with rule 2.1 all relevant applications will be deemed to have been amended or withdrawn, as the case may be.
If the number of Shares is insufficient to enable an Option based on a Contribution equal to the minimum Contribution permitted under the invitation to be granted to each Eligible Employee who has made a valid application, the Company may, as an alternative to selecting by lot, determine in its absolute discretion that no Options will be granted.
An Option will only be granted to a person if:
Each Participant will receive a certificate setting out the terms of the Option as soon as reasonably practicable after the Grant Date (an "Option Certificate"). The Option Certificate may be sent by email or made available by other electronic means.
Subject to rule 4.6, Options may not be granted over a number of Shares greater than ten per cent. of the number of Shares in issue at the time the Plan is adopted by the Board.
The nominal amount of Shares over which the Board may grant Options on any date will be limited so that it does not exceed the limit specified in rule 4.3. The limit specified in rule 4.3 only applies to Options which are to be satisfied (directly or indirectly) by the issue of new Shares or the transfer of Treasury Shares.
The limit is ten per cent. of the nominal amount of the Company's equity share capital on the Grant Date less the aggregate of the nominal amounts of:
4.3.1 Shares allocated in respect of awards granted within the previous ten years under any employee share scheme;
For the purposes of this rule 4:
Where an individual is granted two awards on terms that the exercise, vesting or release of one will automatically result in a reduction to the extent to which the other may be exercised, vest or be released and vice versa, then for the purposes of this rule 4 it will only be necessary to take into account that number of Shares which could be acquired in respect of those awards having regard to those terms.
The Board may adjust the limits set out in rule 4.1 and 4.3 in the event of a variation of the equity share capital of the Company.
to accrue at a rate which would exceed \$25,000 (or such other limit as prescribed by the Code from time to time) of Market Value (determined at the time the relevant option is granted) for each calendar year in which such Option is outstanding. The limitation under this Rule 4.7.1 will be applied in accordance with section 423(b)(8) of the Code.
5.1.3 An Option will lapse on the date the Participant ceases to be an employee of the Group unless rule 5.2 or 5.3 applies.
If a Participant dies holding an Option, it will immediately Vest and the Option may be exercised by the executor of the Participant's estate within 3 months of the Participant's date of death. If the deceased Participant's Option is not so exercised the amount held under the Savings Contract will be paid to the Participant's estate in cash.
If a Participant ceases to be an employee of the Group because of:
the Option will Vest and be exercised in accordance with rule 5.6 and 5.7 on the date of such cessation.
For the purposes of this rule 5, a Participant will not be treated as ceasing to be an employee of the Group:
An Option may only be exercised with the amount of the repayment made under the related Savings Contract. For the purpose of this rule 5.6, a repayment under the Savings Contract will exclude the repayment of any Contribution the due date for payment of which falls after the date on which repayment is made.
Unless the Board determines that an alternative date will apply, the "Exercise Date" will be the Vesting Date. However, if on the Vesting Date, any Dealing Restrictions would prohibit the exercise of Options by the Participant, the Exercise Date will be the first Business Day when such prohibitions cease to apply, provided that in any event, the Exercise Date of an Option will be no later than 27 months after the Grant Date.
for such period as the Board may determine on or before the Exercise Date; or
(ii) the Participant will be bound to notify the Company in writing immediately on the sale of any Shares acquired on the exercise of their Option during such period as the Board may determine.
Shares issued or transferred on the exercise of an Option will rank equally in all respects with the Shares in issue at the point of issue or transfer, except as specified in the Plan rules. They will not rank for any rights attaching to Shares by reference to a record date before the date of issue or transfer. Where Shares are transferred (including a transfer out of treasury) on the exercise of an Option the Participant will be entitled to all rights attaching to the Shares by reference to a record date on or after the transfer date.
Any current or former Group Member or the trustee of any employee benefit trust established by such current or former Group Member may (to the extent permitted by law) make such arrangements as it considers necessary to meet any liability to taxation, duties, social security contributions or other amounts in respect of Options or otherwise in connection with a person's participation in the Plan, whether the liability is a liability of, or is payable by, the Participant, a Group Member or the trustee. These arrangements may include a reduction in the number of Shares subject to an Option on behalf of the Participant and/or the sale on behalf of the Participant of any of the Shares to which the Participant is entitled under the Plan and the retention of the sale proceeds to meet the liability. References to social security contributions include anything in a jurisdiction outside the United Kingdom which, in the opinion of the Board, is reasonably comparable to social security contributions.
The Participant authorises the Company to sell on the Participant's behalf sufficient Shares subject to the Participant's Option to discharge any liability to taxation, duties or social security contributions arising in connection with that Option that any current or former Group Member is required to withhold and any related costs associated with that sale. In facilitating such a sale, the Company may appoint a broker of its choosing.
If there is:
6.1.4 any other transaction which will, in the Board's opinion, materially affect the value of Shares,
the Board may adjust the number or class of Shares subject to, and the Exercise Price of, an Option as it considers appropriate, provided that, except in the circumstances set out in rule 6.2, no variation will be made which would result in the Exercise Price for an allotted Share being less than its nominal value. Unless the Board determines otherwise in its discretion, any adjustment under this rule 6 will be conducted in a manner so as not to constitute a "modification" of the Option within the meaning of section 424(h) of the Code.
The Company will notify Participants of any adjustment made under this rule 6.
Subject to rule 7.3, where:
7.1.4 to the extent it has not already Vested, Vest; and
7.1.5 be automatically exercised in accordance with rules 5.6 and 5.7
on the Effective Date.
For the purposes of this rule 7.1 the "Effective Date" will be:
unless the Board determines that an alternative date will apply.
If a resolution is passed or an order is made for the winding-up of the Company or the Board becomes aware that the Company is or is expected to be affected by:
the Board may determine that an Unvested Option will Vest and be automatically exercised in accordance with rules 5.6 and 5.7, after which time it will, unless the Board determines otherwise, lapse.
In the event that:
then the Board, with the consent of the Acquiring Company, may determine before the obtaining of such Control that an Unvested Option will not Vest under rule 7.1 but will be automatically exchanged under rule 8.
In this rule 7 "Board" means those people who were members of the Board immediately before the Effective Date.
Where an Option is to be exchanged under rule 7.3 the exchange will take place as soon as reasonably practicable after the relevant event.
Where a Participant is granted a new option (the "New Option") in exchange for an existing Option, the New Option:
To the extent practicable, as determined in the sole discretion of the Board, any exchange of an Option will be conducted in a manner so as not to constitute a "modification" of the Option within the meaning of section 424(h) of the Code.
For the purposes of this rule 9, "Employee" means any employee of a Group Member. This rule 9 applies during an Employee's employment and after the cessation of an Employee's employment, whether or not the cessation is lawful.
Nothing in the Plan rules or the operation of the Plan forms part of the Employee's contract of employment. The rights and obligations arising from the employment relationship between the Employee and the Employee's employer are separate from, and are not affected by, the Plan. Participation in the Plan does not create any right to, or expectation of, continued employment of the Employee.
No Employee has a right to participate in the Plan. Participation in the Plan or the grant of Options on a particular basis in any year does not create any right to or expectation of participation in the Plan or the grant of Options on the same basis, or at all, in any future year.
No Employee has any right to compensation for any loss in relation to the Plan, including any loss in relation to:
Participation in the Plan is permitted only on the basis that the Participant accepts all the provisions of the Plan rules, including this rule 9.5. By participating in the Plan, an Employee waives all rights under or in connection with the Plan, other than the right to acquire Shares subject to and in accordance with the express terms of the Plan and any conditions applicable to their Option, in consideration for, and as a condition of, the grant of the Option.
Nothing in the Plan confers any benefit, right or expectation on a person who is not an Employee. No such third party has any rights under the Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999 to enforce any term of the Plan. This does not affect any other right or remedy of a third party which may exist.
A Participant will not be entitled to vote, to receive dividends or to have any other rights of a shareholder in respect of Shares subject to an Option until the Participant has received the underlying Shares as a result of the exercise of the Option.
A Participant may not transfer, assign or otherwise dispose of an Option or any rights in respect of it. If the Participant does, whether voluntarily or involuntarily, then it will immediately lapse. This rule 11.2 does not apply to the transmission of an Option on the death of a Participant to a Participant's personal representatives.
Except as required by the written terms of any US tax-qualified defined benefit or defined contribution pension plan, none of the benefits received under the Plan is pensionable.
The decision of the Board on the interpretation of the Plan or in any dispute relating to an Option or matter relating to the Plan will be final and conclusive.
The Company may (but is not obliged to) send to Participants copies of any documents or notices normally sent to the holders of its Shares.
The Board has the power from time to time to make or vary regulations for the administration and operation of the Plan but these must be consistent with its rules and with applicable law, including section 423 of the Code. The Board may correct any defect or supply any omission or reconcile any inconsistency or ambiguity in the Plan.
All allotments, issues and transfers of Shares will be subject to any necessary consents under any relevant enactments or regulations for the time being in force in the United Kingdom or elsewhere. The Participant will be responsible for complying with any requirements the Participant needs to fulfil in order to obtain or avoid the necessity for any such consent.
If and so long as the Shares are listed on the Official List and traded on the London Stock Exchange, the Company will apply for listing of any Shares issued under the Plan as soon as reasonably practicable.
Subject to the rest of this rule 11, the Board may at any time amend the Plan rules and the terms of any Option in any way.
of capital or any other variation of the equity share capital of the Company; or
If the Board proposes an amendment to the Plan or the terms of any Option which would be to the material disadvantage of Participants in respect of subsisting rights under the Plan, then:
The Board may (but is not obliged to) give written notice of any amendments made to any Participant affected.
English law governs the Plan and all Options and their construction. The courts of England and Wales will have exclusive jurisdiction in respect of disputes arising under or in connection with the Plan or any Option.
This Schedule 1 is supplementary to the Plan rules and has been adopted in order to satisfy the requirements of section 25102(o) of the California Corporate Securities Law of 1968, as amended from time to time, and the regulations issued thereunder by the California Commissioner of Corporations (the "California Securities Law").
It is intended that the Plan constitutes a compensatory purchase plan for the purposes of section 260.140.42 of the California Code of Regulations. Any Option granted to an Eligible Employee who is resident of the State of California (a "California Participant") on the Grant Date of that Option will be subject to the following additional terms which, solely for the purposes of compliance with the California Securities Law, will be deemed to be a separate plan maintained solely for California Participants.
For the avoidance of doubt, any reference to an "Option" in the Plan and this Schedule 1 is intended to mean a right to purchase Shares at a fixed and predetermined purchase date and purchase price subject to the Plan rules, and not an option within the meaning of section 260.140.41 of the California Code of Regulations.
Where there is any conflict between the Plan rules and this Schedule 1, the terms of this Schedule 1 will prevail.
accounts at least annually unless such California Participants whose role or duties for the Group assure them access to equivalent information.
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