IFG bid puts former CEO in the money on options

Dublin-listed IFG Group's former chief executive, John Cotter, has seen options he continues to hold in the financial services company swing into the money as it agreed last month to be taken over.

IFG’s annual report, published on Tuesday, revealed that it paid Mr Cotter one year’s salary and fixed benefits totalling £409,805 (€475,172) under a settlement agreement as he quit the group last April after more than a year and a half at the helm.

The report also revealed that Mr Cotter, who also previously served as group chief financial officer, was “treated as a good leaver in respect of his outstanding 574,840 options which became exercisable on his departure and will remain so until October 16th, 2019”.

He stands to make a £195,446 profit by exercising his options at an average price of £1.59 and selling the stock under IFG’s agreed takeover to UK private equity firm Epiris Funds for £1.93 per share. The shares were trading at £1.325 a piece before the deal was announced, meaning the options had no value at the time.

INBS kept lending despite deepening financial crisis, says former chairman

---

AIB ordered to pay €4,000 over refusal to open account for Syrian dentist

---

AIB cuts mortgage interest rates, introduces 10-year fixed rate

---

Irish funds industry group sets up office in Brussels ahead of Brexit

---

Additional shares

Mr Cotter also holds a further 185,000 shares in IFG, which are valued at £357,050 by the deal.

Kathryn Purves, who took over as chief executive a year ago and received £424,000 in remuneration for 2018, also holds 346,000 share options carrying an exercise price of £1.4275. The annual report states that in the change of control, IFG's board "will determine to what extent unvested options will vest and the extent to which any performance conditions have been satisfied".

Ms Purves also owns 60,000 shares in the company.

Epiris’s agreed takeover of IFG, which remains subject to shareholder approval at a meeting on May 9th, would draw to a close a difficult 12 months for the firm. During this time, its shares dropped 28 per cent, mainly as a result of it incurring significant legal and remediation costs linked to a UK revenue investigation into Elysian Fuels, a structure investment in biofuel businesses it initiated between 2011 and 2015.