Purplebricks doubles shares needed this year for LPE and staff incentive scheme
Hybrid agency has told stock exchange it will block list 7m ordinary shares on Wednesday to help keep its staff and LPEs working hard.
Purplebricks has applied to the London Stock Exchange to list a further seven million ordinary shares for its three staff incentive schemes, twice the number it listed for this purpose last year.
The company has already listed 15 million shares since 2015 for this purpose to allocate to Local Property Experts (LPEs), senior management and other employees.
The rapid expansion of Purplebricks has been reflected in its share listing activity for incentive schemes as the number of senior management, staff and LPEs has ballooned. The company now lists over 230 staff and 600 LPEs in the UK alone.
Its first listing was a modest 403,328 shares in 2015 rising to 2.246 million at the end of last year, and now seven million next week; the new shares will go live on the London Stock Exchange on Wednesday.
Following allocation, LPEs and their sub-licensees can cash-in a quarter of their shares after a year, plus a further 6.25% of their allocation every three months, effectively tying them in to the company for four years.
£1.5m extra cost
Within its most recent results presentation Purplebricks flagged up how expensive these share options schemes for its staff and self-employed LPEs are becoming.
Latest figures before today’s new share allocation announcement showed that its share based payment charge had increased by £1.5 million or 158% compared to the previous year.
“This reflects the further grant of options under the group’s schemes during the year to align the objectives of key employees with the performance of the group as a whole,” the company said.
Purplebricks uses other incentive schemes to persuade its LPEs to work the long hours needed, and much complained about on recruitment websites such as Indeed and Glassdoor.
For example, it also operates an incentive scheme in partnership with Perkbox that offers employees and LPEs a ‘benefits’ service via a mobile phone app giving them access to discounted services and products.
