8 April 2022
Ascential plc ("the Company")
Notification of transactions of persons discharging managerial responsibility
Ascential plc (LSE: ASCL.L) has received notification of the following transactions by its Chief Executive Officer, Duncan Painter, and its Chief Financial Officer, Mandy Gradden, following vesting of conditional awards granted in 2019 under the Deferred Annual Bonus Plan, and by its Chief Operating Officer, Paul Harrison, following vesting of a conditional award granted in relation to his joining arrangements, as disclosed in the 2020 Annual Report on Remuneration.
| Director | Shares acquired under Deferred Annual Bonus Plan | Shares acquired under joining arrangements | Shares disposed to meet income tax and social security liability | Resultant holding (no. of shares) | Resultant holding (% of issued share capital) |
| Duncan Painter | 19,549 | - | 9,216 | 4,156,685 | 0.94% |
| Mandy Gradden | 13,184 | - | 6,216 | 857,902 | 0.19% |
| Paul Harrison | - | 129,159 | 60,888 | 174,244 | 0.04% |
| Total | 32,733 | 129,159 | 76,320 | 5,188,831 | 1.17% |
Additional information:
Ascential plc (LEI 213800VDXQDA7KD2IQ21)
Ordinary shares of 1p each with identification code BYM8GJ0
Prices and volumes: Sale of 76,320 ordinary shares at £3.3512 per share.
Date of transaction: 4 April 2022
Place of transaction: London
Grant of Awards under the Company's Performance Share Plan and Deferred Annual Bonus Plan.
On 6 April 2022 the Company's Executive Directors were granted conditional awards over ordinary shares of 1p each under the Ascential plc Executive Performance Share Plan (the "PSP") and the Executive Deferred Annual Bonus Plan ("DABP") as noted below:
| Executive Director | Number of shares awarded under PSP | Number of shares awarded under DABP |
| Duncan Painter | 329,717 | 205,715 |
| Mandy Gradden | 244,545 | 76,287 |
| Paul Harrison | 233,790 | 83,496 |
PSP awards
Subject to the terms of the PSP, the awards will ordinarily vest on the third anniversary of the grant of the awards subject to the grantee's continued service and to the extent to which adjusted EPS and Digital Commerce Business Unit Revenue performance criteria are met over the three financial years to 31 December 2024. The shares will also be subject to a further two-year holding period whereby the Executive Directors will be restricted from selling the shares which vest other than to settle any associated tax.
DABP awards
Awards made under the DABP relate to the deferral of bonus payable to Executive Directors into shares. Subject to the terms of the DABP, the awards will ordinarily vest on the third anniversary of the grant of the awards subject to the grantee's continued service.
| 1
| Details of the person discharging managerial responsibilities / person closely associated
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| a)
| Names
| Duncan Painter Mandy Gradden Paul Harrison | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2
| Reason for the notification
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| a)
| Position/status
| Director | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| b)
| Initial notification /Amendment
| Initial notification | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 3
| Details of the issuer, emission allowance market participant, auction platform, auctioneer or auction monitor
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| a)
| Name
| Ascential plc | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| b)
| LEI
| 213800VDXQDA7KD2IQ21 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 4
| Details of the transaction(s): section to be repeated for (i) each type of instrument; (ii) each type of transaction; (iii) each date; and (iv) each place where transactions have been conducted
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| a)
| Description of the financial instrument, type of instrument | Ordinary shares of 1p
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Identification code | BYM8GJ0 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| b)
| Nature of the transaction
| Grant of conditional awards under the Company's Performance Share Plan ("PSP") and the Executive Deferred Annual Bonus Plan ("DABP") | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| c)
| Price(s) and volume(s) |
|
|
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|
|
|
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| d)
| Aggregated information |
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| - Aggregated volume | Duncan Painter - 535,432 Mandy Gradden - 320,832 Paul Harrison - 317,286 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| - Price | Nil | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| e)
| Date of the transaction
| 6 April 2022 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| f)
| Place of the transaction
| London | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Contacts
Louise Meads, Company Secretary
+44 (0) 207 516 5042
About Ascential
Ascential delivers specialist information, analytics and eCommerce optimisation platforms to the world's leading consumer brands and their ecosystems. Our world-class businesses improve performance and solve problems for our customers by delivering immediately actionable information combined with visionary longer-term thinking across Digital Commerce, Product Design and Marketing. We also serve customers across Retail & Financial Services.
● Digital Commerce - measurement, optimisation and execution for digital commerce growth.
● Product Design - consumer product trend forecasting, data and insight to create world-class products and experiences.
● Marketing - services and tools to measure and optimise marketing creativity, media and platform effectiveness and efficiency.
With more than 2,800 employees across five continents, we combine local expertise with a global footprint for clients in over 120 countries. Ascential is listed on the London Stock Exchange.
RNS may use your IP address to confirm compliance with the terms and conditions, to analyse how you engage with the information contained in this communication, and to share such analysis on an anonymised basis with others as part of our commercial services. For further information about how RNS and the London Stock Exchange use the personal data you provide us, please see our Privacy Policy.
