The shareholders of Invalda INVL, one of the Baltic region's leading asset management groups, approved a stock option policy for the company. Acquisition of Invalda INVL stock options will be possible for employees of companies in which the group owns more than half of shares. Employees who participate in the option programme this year will be able in 2019 to acquire 52 906 shares at a price of EUR 1 per share.
"We'll start implementing the new option policy already this year. I'm confident that the opportunity to become stakeholders of the business, and to benefit from Invalda INVL's growth, will encourage the team of professionals we've put together even more to contribute to the success of the business," said Darius Sulnis, the CEO of Invalda INVL. He said that if all goes well with the policy, there are plans to expand the number of participating employees.
Under the approved option policy, the number of shares to be offered for acquisition by way of options is approved by the shareholders meeting. The shares that employees are offered to acquire have a fixed price, and decisions on concluding options sales contracts are made by the company's board. Employees' right to acquire the company shares for which they have options contracts may be exercised three years after the contracts are concluded.
The shareholders meeting also authorized the board of the company to acquire up to 10 per cent of the company's own shares, setting a minimum buy-back price of EUR 1 per share and establishing that the maximum price should not exceed the book value of 1 share of the company prior to initiating the buy-back. The authorization will remain in force for 18 months from the date of this decision.
Invalda INVL's equity capital at the end of 2015 was EUR 48.1 million. The consolidated net profit of the Invalda INVL group last year was EUR 4.2 million.
Invalda INVL, operating since 1991, is one of the leading asset management groups in the Baltic countries. Companies the group owns in Lithuania and Latvia manage more than 20 mutual, real estate and pension funds (2nd and 3rd pillar), alternative investments, individual portfolios, private equity and other financial instruments. The group's companies manage over EUR 300 million of assets entrusted to them by more than 150,000 clients in Lithuania and Latvia as well as international investors. The shares of Invalda INVL have traded on the Nasdaq Baltic securities exchange since 1995.