London-listed Braemar Shipping Services has handed out a series of share options to reward key executives for a profitable year.
The shipbroker said the awards were made under its bonus plan for the 2020/2021 financial year.
Chief executive James Gundy was granted options for 169,925 shares that will vest in three years at £2.66 each.
The tranche would be worth £490,000 ($690,000) at the closing price of £2.89 on 11 June in London.
But the stock has to stay above the vesting price in June 2024 for the options to have a value.
The price is the average of the middle-market quotations of the shares over the three days before the grant date, Braemar said.
Nick Stone, Braemar's chief operating officer and finance director, was awarded 25,398 options and Peter Mason, general counsel and company secretary, received 12,138.
Mason was also given corresponding options for 11,278 under the company share option plan.
The broker's market capitalisation is £92m.
On 4 June, Braemar said chief executive James Gundy had bought 20,000 of the company's shares at £2.54 each for a total of £50,800, while new chairman Nigel Payne bought 6,400 shares at £2.50 each.
Gundy currently has a stake of 1.93%, and Payne holds 0.02%.
Magnus Halvorsen piles in
A day earlier, a Norwegian fund controlled by 2020 Bulkers chief executive Magnus Halvorsen took a significant stake in Braemar.
A company filing revealed Oslo-based MH Capital, chaired by former Clarksons Platou Securities executive Halvorsen, now owns 3.52% of the UK shipbroking group.
The stake of 31.74m shares was worth $4.3m at the time.
MH bought into Braemar on the day its results came out for the year to 28 February.
The broker has also said it will restoring dividends as markets recover and profit rises.
In its last earnings report, the company beat market consensus and its own forecasts with net profit of £5.1m for the fiscal year ending 28 February, against £4m in the previous 12 months.
Revenue dipped to £111.8m from £117.6m, but Braemar booked a £2.2m profit on selling half of its stake in LNG and LPG consultancy AqualisBraemar in the period. The rest of the shares were sold later in 2021.
