UK retailer AO World to reward all staff with incentive plan

LONDON (Reuters) – British online electricals retailer AO World has proposed an employee incentive scheme that would benefit all of its 3,000 workers, it said on Tuesday.

Measured over five to seven years, the AO Value Creation Plan (VCP) would reward value created above a share price hurdle of 5.23 pounds ($6.64), equivalent to a market capitalisation of 2.5 billion pounds, and representing growth of about 30% a year from Monday’s closing share price of 164.8 pence.

Above that hurdle, 10% of value created would be shared between all AO employees. Awards to executive directors would be capped at 20 million pounds.

AO said that to realise the full benefit of the scheme, it would need to achieve a share price of at least 9.41 pounds, a market capitalisation of 4.5 billion pounds, with that value maintained for at least two further years to March 2027.

“AO is now set up to benefit from the accelerated structural shift to online in the UK and Germany and our model is now truly scalable,” said founder and chief executive John Roberts, who listed the group in 2014 at 285 pence per share.

“(The plan) is a vote of confidence in our people and the future,” he said.

Roberts, who owns 23% of the equity, said any reward he received from the plan would be donated to charity.

(Reporting by James Davey; editing by Sarah Young)