case studies


Creating an employee incentive programme

Our client is in the process of developing and engineering its own high-tech medical product, and had recently received external financial backing. The client wished to incentivise its key staff and management going forward, particularly as the product moved closer to production. After discussing the issues with our client, it became apparent that there were going to be four categories of management and employees to be incentivised, mainly based in the UK but some with an overseas element as well. Key to the whole project was working with the external funders, as well as internal management, to achieve a solution that worked for all.
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Advising a major retail client on lease renewal tax advice

Our client wished to extend the term of its lease on premises in central London and was keen to minimise the stamp duty land tax (‘SDLT’) payable on the grant of the new lease.  We looked at different ways of structuring the lease renewal with our client.  Additional complexities centred around interaction of the old stamp duty rules and SDLT legislation on leases, as the original lease had been granted prior to 1st December 2003.
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Enterprise Management Incentive Share Options (EMIs) for an engineering client

An engineering client wanted to set up an Enterprise Management Incentive share option scheme (EMI) for key employees; one tranche of which involved a reasonably straightforward right to acquire shares out of an employee benefit trust, whilst the other presented complex drafting and structuring issues.  Particular issues included the number of shares subject to the EMI options which would be linked to net proceeds on a future exit (subject to variable financial conditions, including level of net proceeds achieved); and was in three tiers (again subject to variable financial conditions including levels of marketing capitalisation).
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