HSBC 2003 Annual Report Download - page 193

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12. 2,000 ordinary shares were issued at prices
ranging from £8.405 to £8.712 per share in
connection with the exercise of options under
the HSBC Holdings Group Share Option Plan.
Options over 4,283,355 ordinary shares lapsed.
13. Options over 57,471,110 ordinary shares were
awarded at nil consideration on 2 May 2003
under the HSBC Holdings Group Share Option
Plan. The options are normally exercisable
between the third and 10th anniversaries of the
award at a price of £6.91 per share, the market
value of the ordinary shares on the date of
award.
14. Options over 577,270 ordinary shares were
awarded at nil consideration on 29 August 2003
under the HSBC Holdings Group Share Option
Plan. The options are normally exercisable
between the third and 10th anniversaries of the
award at a price of £8.13 per share, the market
value of the ordinary shares on the date of
award.
15. Options over 4,069,800 ordinary shares were
awarded at nil consideration on 3 November
2003 under the HSBC Holdings Group Share
Option Plan. The options are normally
exercisable between the third and 10th
anniversaries of the award at a price of £9.1350
per share, the market value of the ordinary
shares on the date of award.
Authority to repurchase shares
16. At the Annual General Meeting in 2003
shareholders gave authority for the Company to
make market repurchases of up to 948,200,000
ordinary shares. Your Directors have not
exercised this authority.
Authority to allot shares
17. At the Annual General Meeting in 2003
shareholders gave authority for the Directors to
allot up to 1,896,400,000 ordinary shares.
Within this amount the Directors were granted
authority to allot up to 474,100,000 ordinary
shares wholly for cash to persons other than
existing shareholders. The Directors were also
given authority to allot up to 10,000,000 non-
cumulative preference shares of £0.01 each,
10,000,000 non-cumulative preference shares of
US$0.01 each and 10,000,000 non-cumulative
preference shares of €0.01 each.
Employee share option plans
In order to align the interests of staff with those of
shareholders, share options are awarded to
employees under all-employee share plans and
discretionary share incentive plans. The following
are particulars of outstanding employee share
options, including those held by employees working
under employment contracts that are regarded as
“continuous contracts” for the purposes of the Hong
Kong Employment Ordinance. The options are
granted at nil consideration unless otherwise
indicated. No options have been granted to
substantial shareholders, suppliers of goods or
services, or in excess of the individual limit for each
share plan. No options were cancelled during the
year. The maximum number of new HSBC Holdings
ordinary shares that may be issued or become
issuable under all the share option plans in any ten
year period is 848,847,000 HSBC Holdings ordinary
shares (approximately 7.7 per cent of HSBC
Holdings’ issued ordinary share capital on 1 March
2004). Within this limit not more than 5 per cent of
the issued ordinary share capital of HSBC Holdings
from time to time may be put under option under the
HSBC Holdings Group Share Option Plan and the
HSBC Holdings Restricted Share Plan 2000 in any
ten year period (approximately 550,000,000 HSBC
Holdings ordinary shares on 1 March 2004). Under
these plans there were options outstanding over
347,007,843 HSBC Holdings ordinary shares at
31 December 2003. Particulars of options over
HSBC Holdings shares held by Directors of HSBC
Holdings are set out on pages 225 to 229 of the
Directors’ Remuneration Report.
All-Employee share plans
The HSBC Holdings Savings-Related Share Option
Plan, HSBC Holdings Savings-Related Share Option
Plan: Overseas Section, and previously the HSBC
Holdings Savings-Related Share Option Scheme:
USA Section, are all-employee share plans under
which eligible HSBC employees (those with six
months continuous service from July to December of
the year preceding the date of grant) are granted
options to acquire HSBC Holdings ordinary shares of
US$0.50 each. Employees may make overall
contributions of up to £250 (or equivalent) each
month over a period of three or five years which may
be used on the third or fifth anniversary of the
commencement of the relevant savings contract, at
their election, to exercise the options; alternatively