Hundreds of Knights’ worker opted into share options scheme as stock price plummets
Shares in listed law firm Knights Plc continued to plummet today, as it emerged that hundreds of Knights’ workers had agreed to buy shares at more than double their current price, after opting into an employee ownership scheme.
A total of 524 employees opted into Knights’ Save As You Earn scheme, which offered company employees a 20 per cent discount on shares in the firm based on the closing price on 21 February.
The scheme allowed Knights’ employees to buy into the firm at a price of £2.96 per share – 20 per cent less than the £3.70 closing price on 21 February.
However, shares in the firm have plummeted over the past few days, after Knights issued a trading statement claiming the “persistent effects of Omicron” had hindered its return to the office and led to a “slowdown in corporate work.”
Knights, which has 17 offices across the UK, said high rates of illness amongst its staff meant the firm failed to benefit from a fast return to the office, as it claimed the slow return damaged its “team-based culture.”
In total, the employee options scheme is set to see employees take as many as 1,430,251 shares in the firm.
The law firms’ plummeting share price comes after company chief executive David Beech sold 15.7m shares in the firm at a price of £3.90 each – reaping a total of around £61m.