haysmacintyre advised a financial services client on catching up on six years of late Employment Related Securities (ERS) returns. Whilst penalties were levied by HMRC, haysmacintyre appealed and were able to cancel them in full.

haysmacintyre acted as reporting accountant on Tan Delta Systems PLC’s successful admission to AIM.

haysmacintyre designed and implemented an Enterprise Management Incentive (EMI) option plan over multiple classes of growth share, to give effect to a management ratchet mechanism. The shareholders wanted an incentive for the CEO to grow the business well beyond its current value and were willing to offer a higher equity percentage for each valuation threshold passed. haysmacintyre introduced specialist lawyers to create multiple share classes, with each share class paying out if the company is sold for above a certain hurdle. We then agreed share values for each share class with HMRC and drafted the relevant EMI option documentation.

haysmacintyre advised on the implementation of a growth share scheme for a popular restaurant chain. Whilst an existing growth share class was in place, the terms were considered no longer appropriate. haysmacintyre worked alongside corporate lawyers to cancel the existing shares and to create the new class of growth shares, including producing a new share valuation, resulting in a better aligned management team going forwards.

haysmacintyre advised on expanding an existing EMI option plan to facilitate grants of options to individual contractors and their service companies. This involved adding a sub-plan to the main Enterprise Management Incentive (EMI) plan and adapting the rules of this sub-plan to reflect the contractor nature of the optionholders.

haysmacintyre prepared a detailed explanatory memo and supported negotiations, which reduced the buyer’s advisors’ assessment of the target’s tax exposure on employment related securities from £2m to £250,000.

We advised on the sale of a digital media business group to a UK private equity firm in a locked box deal of up to £40m. We worked with the target’s finance team to produce personal capital gains statements and tax return completion instructions for over 100 shareholders.

We acted for a US conglomerate buyer on the acquisition of a UK-headed tech group, with subsidiaries in the US and India.