Grant of Options

Equals Group plc

("Equals", the "Group" or the "Company")

Grant of Options

Equals, the e-banking and payments group, today announces that it has granted 1,750,000 options over ordinary shares of 1 pence each in the capital of the Company ("New Options") to the following persons discharging managerial responsibilities ("PDMR's"):

Appointment to the board of Equals effective from 14 October 2019.

The New Options give holders the right to subscribe for new ordinary shares of 1 pence each in the capital of the Company ("Ordinary Shares") at an exercise price of 101.1 pence per Ordinary Share. The options vest in 3 equal tranches after 1, 2 and 3 years from the date of grant subject to conditions relating to continued employment being satisfied. For Ian Strafford-Taylor and Ben Wynn, the date of grant is todays date whereas in the case of Richard Cooper this will be from 14^th October 2019, the date at which he takes up his position. 

The Remuneration Committee of the Company are also in the process of establishing a Long-Term Incentive Plan (the "LTIP") which will retain and motivate key senior executives over the Company's next phase of development. The Remuneration Committee intend to consult with major shareholders the principal terms of the LTIP ahead of formally approving the plan.

Finally, as set out above, before the issue of New Options Mr Strafford-Taylor held an interest in 4,268,000 options over Ordinary Shares ("Existing Options"). A summary of the Existing Options held by Mr Strafford-Taylor is set out below

In addition, Dr Jules Bean, The Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of Equals Group, holds Existing Options as per the summary below

3,518,000 Existing Options held by Mr Strafford-Taylor and 854,800 Existing Options held by Dr Bean expire on 03/11/2019. The Remuneration Committee has agreed to extend the expiry date of the total of 4,372,800 Existing Options to 03/11/2022.

The following disclosures are made in accordance with Article 19 of the EU Market Abuse Regulation 596/2014.

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About Equals

Equals is a leading challenger brand in banking and payments that disintermediates the incumbent banks with a superior user experience and low-cost operating model. Our business enables personal and business customers to make easy, low-cost payments both domestically and in a broad range of currencies and across a range of products all via one integrated system. The Equals platform facilitates payments either direct to Bank Accounts or at 35 million merchants and over 1 million ATM's in a broad range of countries globally via Mobile apps, the Internet, SMS, wire transfer and MasterCard/VISA debit cards.

Equals provides money movement services to both personal and business customers through four channels: Currency Cards, Physical Currency, International Payments and Bank Accounts. The Currency Card and Physical Currency offerings facilitate multiple overseas payments at points of sale and ATM's whereas the International Payments channel supports wire transfer foreign exchange transactions direct to Bank Accounts. For Corporates, Equals has a market-leading business-expenses solution based around its corporate platform and prepaid card. This service can yield significant savings on a Corporate's expenses and procurement both domestically and overseas, through better controls and improved transparency. The platform also streamlines the downstream administrative processes and integrates into accounting software, thus saving costs. Equals offers retail and business bank accounts with all the functionality you would expect from a bank, namely faster payments, BACs, direct debits, international payments and a debit card.