Liberty International PLC

 

37 Employees’ information

	2007		2006
	£m Group	£m Company	£m Group	£m Company
Wages and salaries	26.6	6.0	24.6	6.0
Social security costs	3.2	0.9	3.3	1.0
Other pension costs	2.0	0.9	1.7	1.0
	31.8	7.8	29.6	8.0

At 31 December 2007 the number of persons employed by the group was 672 (2006 – 384) and by the company was 77 (2006 – 84). The average number of persons employed during the year was:

	2007 Number	2006 Number
Liberty International PLC	80	84
Capital Shopping Centres	214	336
Capital & Counties	213	95
	507	515

Key management* compensation	2007 £m	2006 £m**
Salaries and short-term employee benefits	5.5	5.2
Pensions and other post-employment benefits	0.5	0.4
Share-based payment	2.3	0.9
Other long-term payments	0.9	1.1
	9.2	7.6

* Key management comprises the Directors of Liberty International and Capital & Counties, the Executive Directors of Capital Shopping Centres, the Company Secretary and General Corporate Counsel of Liberty International PLC and the President of C&C USA Inc.

** Figure revised to include bonus provision in respect of USA Stock Appreciation Rights Plan.

Share options

Options to subscribe for ordinary shares under the Liberty International Holdings PLC Incentive Share Option Scheme 1990, the Liberty International PLC Incentive Share Option Scheme 1999 and the Liberty International PLC Executive Share Option Scheme 1999, were outstanding as set out below. The vesting period of the options is three years and all schemes are equity settled. Exercise is subject to meeting an earnings per share (“EPS”) performance condition. The performance condition requires smoothed earnings growth equal to or greater than 5 per cent per annum (or, if greater in any year, 120 per cent of the percentage increase in the Retail Price Index) over a minimum three year comparison period. “Smoothed” earnings excludes exceptional and trading profits above a certain level. If the option remains unexercised after a period of 10 years from the date of grant, the options expire. Furthermore, options are forfeited if the employee leaves the group before the options vest.

	2007		2006
	Number	Weighted average exercise price	Number	Weighted average exercise price
At 1 January	1,193,586	613p	2,430,310	581p
Options granted	–	–	–	–
Options exercised	(488,565)	633p	(1,221,724)	548p
Options expired/lapsed	–	–	(15,000)	698p
At 31 December	705,021	599p	1,193,586	613p

The average share price during the year was 1164p (2006 – 1155.5p). All 705,021 of the outstanding options at 31 December 2007 (2006 – 1,193,586), were exercisable (2006 – 685,154).

The options outstanding at 31 December 2007 were exercisable between 419p and 698p per share and have a weighted average remaining contractual life of six years.

Date of grant		Scheme	Price per share pence	Ordinary shares number	Exercisable between
12 March 1999		1990	419	17,500	2002 and 2009
11 August 1999	ISOS	1999	475	7,000	2002 and 2009
3 March 2000	ISOS	1999	406	45,000	2003 and 2010
22 February 2001	ESOS	1999	512	6,798	2004 and 2011
22 February 2001	ISOS	1999	512	35,983	2004 and 2011
20 February 2002	ESOS	1999	545	365	2005 and 2012
20 February 2002	ISOS	1999	545	27,500	2005 and 2012
6 March 2002	ISOS	1999	567	119,709	2005 and 2012
21 February 2003	ESOS	1999	565	8,992	2006 and 2013
21 February 2003	ISOS	1999	565	157,242	2006 and 2013
19 February 2004	ESOS	1999	698	8,594	2007 and 2014
19 February 2004	ISOS	1999	698	270,338	2007 and 2014
Total				705,021

There were no options granted during 2007 or 2006.

Share awards

Conditional awards of Additional and Restricted shares are made under the company’s annual bonus schemes.

Awards are also made under the company’s Share Incentive Plan (SIP). The SIP shares can be released three years after the date of the award provided the individual employee has remained in employment but the shares must then be held in trust for a further two years in order to qualify for tax advantages. The dividend payable in respect of the shares held in trust is used to purchase additional shares, known as Dividend Shares, which are also held in trust.

The number of share awards granted in the year as at the date of grant are set out below.

	2007 Number	2006 Number
Annual bonus scheme:
SIP	28,403	28,128
Restricted	90,256	96,239
Additional	59,209	59,676

The fair values of share awards were determined by the market price of the shares at the date of grant.

The number of awards outstanding at 31 December 2007 are shown below.

	Annual bonus scheme	SIP	Restricted	Additional
2002	Liberty International	17,521	–	–
2003	Liberty International	16,710	–	–
2004	Liberty International	19,870	–	32,968
2005	Liberty International	18,718	–	28,393
2006	Liberty International	20,893	80,686	48,481
2007	Liberty International	24,553	86,117	54,985
Total		118,265	166,803	164,827

A total of 570,180 ordinary shares were held by LI Share Plan (Jersey) Limited at 31 December 2007 for the purposes of satisfying the future exercise of options and provision of shares on maturity of conditional awards under the annual bonus schemes. A further 241,927 shares (including Partnership, Matching and Dividend Shares) are held by Capita IRG Trustees Ltd as trustee for the SIP.

The total expenses for share-based payments for the group were £0.8 million (2006 – £2.1 million).