Pre-Annual General Meeting Information • Mar 28, 2014
Pre-Annual General Meeting Information
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THIS DOCUMENT IS IMPORTANT AND REQUIRES YOUR IMMEDIATE ATTENTION. If you are in any doubt as to the action you should take, you should immediately consult your stockbroker, bank manager, solicitor, accountant or other independent professional adviser duly authorised under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000.
If you have sold or otherwise transferred all of your shares in Greggs plc, please send this document, together with the accompanying documents, as soon as possible to the purchaser or transferee or to the stockbroker, bank or other agent through whom the sale or transfer was effected for delivery to the purchaser or transferee.
(Registered in England and Wales with registered number 502851)
Registered office: Greggs plc Fernwood House Clayton Road Jesmond Newcastle upon Tyne NE2 1TL
28 March 2014
Dear Shareholder
I enclose a formal notice of our Annual General Meeting, which is to be held at The Marriott Gosforth Park Hotel, High Gosforth Park, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE3 5HN at 11:30 am on Thursday 1 May 2014.
I hope to see as many of you as possible at the AGM, which is the main opportunity each year for the Board to engage with individual shareholders, answer your questions and to listen to your views.
For the first time, we are proposing that all resolutions will be determined by poll vote, rather than on a show of hands. This is in accordance with best practice, and will result in a more accurate reflection of the views of shareholders by ensuring that every vote is recognised, including those of shareholders who are unable to attend the meeting but who appoint a proxy. On a poll, every shareholder has one vote for every share held.
In accordance with the UK Corporate Governance Code, save in respect of Helena Ganczakowski and Peter McPhillips, all of the Directors will, in turn, resign as a Director and offer themselves for re-election. Dr. Ganczakowski and Mr. McPhillips were appointed by the Board since the last AGM and therefore will resign and offer themselves for election by shareholders.
I am pleased to confirm that, following a recommendation from the Nominations Committee, we are satisfied that each of the Directors seeking election or re-election at the meeting makes a valuable contribution to our discussions and has the best interests of the Company at heart.
The Inland Revenue Approved, and Unapproved Employee Share Option Schemes that were approved by shareholders in 2004 will shortly expire, and shareholders are asked to approve two new schemes, the application of which will be overseen by the Remuneration Committee. Details of the operation of the schemes are set out in Appendices 1 and 2 to this Notice, and changes from those previously-approved schemes largely reflect changes in tax and other relevant legislation in the last ten years.
If you are unable to attend the AGM, a proxy form is enclosed for you to complete (according to the instructions printed on it) and send to the Company's Registrars, Capita Asset Services, 34 Beckenham Road, Beckenham, Kent, BR3 4TU to be received by 11:30 am on Tuesday 29 April 2014. Completion and submission of the proxy form will not prevent you from attending and voting at the meeting if you subsequently find that you are able to do so. CREST Members can cast their votes using CREST electronic proxy voting (further details of which are set out in note 9 on page 5 of this document).
Your Directors believe that all the resolutions in the enclosed notice of Annual General Meeting are in the best interests of the Company and are most likely to promote the success of the Company for the benefit of its shareholders as a whole. Accordingly, they unanimously recommend that you vote in favour of each resolution, as they intend to do in respect of their own shareholdings in the Company.
Yours faithfully
Ian Durant Chairman
Notice is hereby given that the Annual General Meeting of Greggs plc ("the Company") will be held at The Marriott Gosforth Park Hotel, High Gosforth Park, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE3 5HN on Thursday 1 May 2014 at 11:30 am for the following purposes:
To transact any other ordinary business of the Company.
As special business, to consider and, if thought fit, pass the following resolutions, which will be proposed as to resolution 15 as an Ordinary Resolution and as to resolutions 16 to 18 (inclusive) as Special Resolutions:
This resolution revokes and replaces all unexercised authorities previously granted to the Directors in accordance with section 80 of the Companies Act 1985 or section 551 of the 2006 Act to allot shares or grant Rights but without prejudice to any allotment of shares or grant of Rights already made, offered or agreed to be made pursuant to such authorities.
but subject to such exclusions or other arrangements as the Directors may deem necessary or expedient in relation to treasury shares, fractional entitlements, record dates, legal or practical problems in or under the laws of any territory or the requirements of any regulatory body or stock exchange; and
The power granted by this resolution will expire on 1 August 2015 or, if earlier, the conclusion of the Company's next Annual General Meeting (unless renewed, varied or revoked by the Company prior to or on such date) save that the Company may, before such expiry make offers or agreements which would or might require equity securities to be allotted after such expiry and the Directors may allot equity securities in pursuance of any such offer or agreement notwithstanding that the power conferred by this resolution has expired.
This resolution revokes and replaces all unexercised powers previously granted to the Directors to allot equity securities as if either section 89(1) of the Companies Act 1985 or section 561(1) of the 2006 Act did not apply but without prejudice to any allotment of equity securities already made or agreed to be made pursuant to such authorities.
Dated: 28 March 2014
Fernwood House Jonathan D Jowett Clayton Road Company Secretary Jesmond Newcastle upon Tyne NE2 1TL
Registered Office: By Order of the Board
To appoint a proxy using the proxy form, the form must be:
completed and signed;
In the case of a member which is a company, the proxy form must be executed under its common seal or signed on its behalf by an officer of the company or an attorney for the company.
Any power of attorney or any other authority under which the proxy form is signed (or a duly certified copy of such power or authority) must be included with the proxy form.
In order for a proxy appointment made by means of CREST to be valid, the appropriate CREST message (a CREST Proxy Instruction) must be properly authenticated in accordance with Euroclear UK & Ireland Limited's ("EUI") specifications and must contain the information required for such instructions, as described in the CREST Manual. The message must be transmitted so as to be received by the issuer's agent (ID RAI0) by the latest time for receipt of proxy appointments specified in note 8 above. For this purpose, the time of receipt will be taken to be the time (as determined by the timestamp applied to the message by the CREST Applications Host) from which the issuer's agent is able to retrieve the message by enquiry to CREST in the manner prescribed by CREST.
CREST members and, where applicable, their CREST sponsors or voting service providers should note that EUI does not make available special procedures in CREST for any particular messages. Normal system timings and limitations will therefore apply in relation to the input of CREST Proxy Instructions. It is the responsibility of the CREST member concerned to take (or, if the CREST member is a CREST personal member or sponsored member or has appointed a voting service provider(s), to procure that his CREST sponsor or voting service provider(s) take(s)) such action as shall be necessary to ensure that a message is transmitted by means of the CREST system by any particular time. In this connection, CREST members and, where applicable, their CREST sponsors or voting service providers are referred, in particular, to those sections of the CREST Manual concerning practical limitations of the CREST system and timings.
The Company may treat as invalid a CREST Proxy Instruction in the circumstances set out in Regulation 35(5)(a) of the Uncertificated Securities Regulations 2001.
The website referred to in note 12 will include information on the number of shares and voting rights.
Where the Company is required to publish such a statement on its website:
For information on voting rights, including the total number of voting rights, see note 14 above and the website referred to in note 12.
If you either do not have such a right or if you have such a right but do not wish to exercise it, you may have a right under an agreement between you and the Relevant Member to give instructions to the Relevant Member as to the exercise of voting rights.
Your main point of contact in terms of your investment in the Company remains the Relevant Member (or, perhaps, your custodian or broker) and you should continue to contact them (and not the Company) regarding any changes or queries relating to your personal details and your interest in the Company (including any administrative matters). The only exception to this is where the Company expressly requests a response from you.
You may not use any electronic address provided either:
to communicate with the Company for any purposes other than those expressly stated.
Section 439 of the Companies Act 2006 requires quoted companies, at each general meeting at which statutory accounts are to be laid, to propose an ordinary resolution approving the Directors' Remuneration Report for the year. Resolution 12 will be proposed as an ordinary resolution for this purpose.
By Resolution 13 shareholders are asked to approve the Directors' Remuneration Policy, as required by The Large and Mediumsized Companies and Groups (Accounts and Reports)(Amendment) Regulations 2013. The Directors' Remuneration Policy is on pages 47 to 54 of the Annual Report and Accounts as made available to shareholders at the same time as this circular and available on the Company's website at www.greggs.co.uk.
The Companies Act 2006 provides that Directors shall only allot unissued shares with the authority of shareholders in general meeting. Resolution 15 will be proposed as an Ordinary Resolution for the renewal of the Directors' general authority to allot shares up to an aggregate nominal amount of £674,000, representing approximately one third of the current issued share capital of the Company. The Directors have no present intention of exercising this authority and the authority will, unless renewed, varied or revoked by the Company, expire on 1 August 2015, or, if earlier the date of the next Annual General Meeting of the Company.
The Companies Act 2006 also provides that any allotment of new shares for cash must be made pro rata to individual shareholders' holdings, unless such provisions are disapplied under section 570 of the Companies Act 2006. Resolution 16 will be proposed as a Special Resolution for the renewal of the Directors' authority to allot equity securities for cash, without first offering them to shareholders pro rata to their holdings. This authority facilitates issues made by way of rights to shareholders which are not strictly in accordance with section 561(1) of the Companies Act 2006, and authorises other allotments of up to a maximum aggregate nominal amount of £101,000, representing approximately five per cent of the current issued share capital of the Company. This authority also allows the Directors, within the same aggregate limit, to sell for cash shares that may be held by the Company in treasury (the Company does not currently hold any such shares). The Directors have no present intention of exercising this authority and in line with best practice, the Company has not issued more than 7.5% of its issued share capital for cash on a non-pro rata basis over the last three years.
Resolution 17 will be proposed as a Special Resolution for the renewal of the Company's authority to purchase its own shares in the market up to an aggregate nominal amount of £202,000 representing approximately ten per cent of the issued share capital of the Company. The price payable shall not be more than five per cent above the average price of the middle market quotation as derived from the Daily Official List of London Stock Exchange plc for the Ordinary Shares for the five business days before the purchase is made and in any event not less than the nominal value of each Ordinary Share. It is the Directors' intention only to exercise the authority to purchase the Company's shares where it would increase the earnings per share of those Ordinary Shares that are not re-purchased. The Company intends either to cancel such shares or to hold them in treasury. This power will only be used if the Directors consider that to do so would be in the best interests of shareholders generally. The total number of warrants and options to subscribe for equity shares that are currently outstanding is 4,885,994, which represents approximately 4.8% per cent of the current issued share capital of the Company. If the full authority to buyback shares (i.e. the existing authority and that being sought under Resolution 17 is used this would represent approximately 5.4 per cent of the current issued share capital of the Company.
Resolution 18 will be proposed as a Special Resolution to allow the Company to continue to hold general meetings on 14 clear days' notice. The Company is currently able to call general meetings other than Annual General Meetings on 14 clear days' notice in accordance with its Articles of Association. However, the Companies (Shareholders' Rights) Regulations 2009 (the "Regulations"), which came into force on 3 August 2009, increased the required notice period for all general meetings to 21 days, which overrides the authority provided for in the Articles of Association. The Company is able to reserve the authority to call general meetings (other than the Annual General Meeting) on 14 clear days' notice, provided shareholders have approved this by passing a resolution annually at each Annual General Meeting and the Company has met the requirements for electronic voting under the Regulations. The Company does not intend to call general meetings on 14 clear days' notice as a matter of routine but would like to retain the flexibility to do so where the Directors believe that it is in the best interests of the Company, for example, where the Directors believe there is a financial or operational advantage which outweighs the benefit to shareholders of a longer notice period.
The CSOP is designed to be compliant with the legislative requirements of Schedule 4 to the Income Tax (Earnings and Pensions) Act 2003.
All full time Directors and all employees of the Company and participating subsidiaries (the "Group") will be eligible to be nominated for participation in the CSOP.
The CSOP will be administered by the Remuneration Committee of the Board of Directors which is comprised wholly of Non-Executive Directors of the Company (the "Committee"). The Committee will have absolute discretion in selecting the persons to whom options under the CSOP are to be granted and (subject to the limits set out below) in determining the number and terms of options to be so granted. No person is entitled as of right to be granted an option.
The holder of an option under the CSOP will be entitled to acquire ordinary shares at a price to be determined by the Committee at the time when the option is granted. The option may relate to new ordinary shares or existing issued ordinary shares or ordinary shares held in treasury. The option price may not be less than the greater of:
4.1 the market value of an ordinary share on the day on which the option is granted; and
4.2 in the case of an option to subscribe for ordinary shares, the nominal value of an ordinary share.
Market value will be determined from the average of the middle market quotations for an ordinary share for the three consecutive dealing days preceding the date of grant of the option.
The exercise of options under the CSOP will in normal circumstances be conditional upon the achievement of an objective performance target to be determined by the Committee when options are granted. The performance target which the Committee intends for the time being to impose at the time of the grant of options under the CSOP will be that an option will vest and become available to exercise only if the average annual percentage growth in earnings per share over the three financial years commencing with the financial year in which the option is granted, is in the range 1 per cent to 4 per cent greater than the average annual growth in RPI over the same period.
Each individual's participation will be limited so that the aggregate option price payable on the exercise of options to subscribe for ordinary shares granted to him under the CSOP and any other discretionary scheme established by the Company will not exceed £30,000 (valued as at the relevant date or dates of grant).
The value of options granted to an individual under the CSOP in any accounting reference period will not exceed one times his salary (although options which are subject to a more testing performance target than that set out in paragraph 5 above will not count towards or be subject to this individual limit).
Benefits under the CSOP will not be pensionable.
Options may be granted during the period of 42 days commencing on any of the following:
No consideration is payable for the grant of an option.
No options may be granted more than ten years after the date of adoption of the CSOP.
Options will not be transferable and may normally only be exercised between the third and tenth anniversaries of the date of grant by a person who remains a Director or employee. Options may, however, be exercised for a limited period after the option holder ceases to be employed within the Group in certain special circumstances, including the death, retirement, redundancy, injury or disability of the option holder or where the option holder's employing company or business is disposed of outside the Group or, at the discretion of the Committee, in any other circumstances. Exercise is also possible in the event of an amalgamation, reconstruction or take-over of the Company. In such circumstances, an option holder may be allowed to release his rights under options in consideration of the grant to him of equivalent rights over shares in the acquiring company. Options may also be exercised in the event of a voluntary winding-up of the Company and in certain circumstances options may be exercised in the event of a demerger.
Options will normally lapse on the expiry of any of the periods allowed for exercise.
The performance target imposed on the grant of options and referred to in paragraph 5 above will normally continue to apply (in a modified form if appropriate) where an option holder exercises his option or releases his rights under options in the special circumstances described in this paragraph 8.
The option holder must indemnify the Company and his employer in respect of any income tax, employer's and employee's National Insurance contributions arising on the exercise of an option. The Committee has a discretion to waive the indemnity in respect of employer's National Insurance contributions.
Ordinary shares will be allotted and issued or transferred within 30 days of the exercise of an option. Ordinary shares allotted will rank in full for all dividends or other distributions payable by reference to a record date occurring on or after the date of allotment of such shares. The Company will ensure that arrangements are made for such shares to be admitted to the Official List. Shares transferred on the exercise of an option shall be transferred without the benefit of any rights attaching to the shares by reference to a record date preceding the date of exercise. In all other respects the ordinary shares so issued or transferred shall be identical and rank pari passu with the fully paid registered ordinary shares in issue on the date of exercise.
The following limits apply to the number of ordinary shares that may be acquired by subscription (which, for the purposes of these limits, will be taken to include any treasury shares transferred to satisfy the exercise of options) on the exercise of options granted under the CSOP:
Options which are subject to a more testing performance target than that set out in paragraph 5 above will not count towards or be subject to the 5% limit described in paragraph 10.1.
In the event of any variation of or increase in the share capital of the Company, the number of shares subject to options and/ or the option price may be adjusted by the Board of Directors.
Although the Board of Directors will have the power to amend the provisions of the CSOP, the provisions relating to:
12.4 the basis for determining a participant's entitlement to, and the terms of, an option and for the adjustment thereof in the event of a capitalisation issue, rights issue or open offer, sub-division or consolidation of shares or reduction of capital or any other variation of capital, cannot be altered to the advantage of participants without the prior approval of shareholders in general meeting (except for minor amendments to benefit the administration of the Scheme, to take account of a change in legislation or to obtain or maintain favourable tax, exchange control or regulatory treatment for participants or for the Company or any other member of the Group).
The provisions of the rules of the ESOS are substantially the same as for the CSOP apart from the following:
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