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108 Financial Statements
Notes to the Financial Statements
Continued
On 29 June 2007 the Group issued awards over 47,679 shares to employees under the RSU, 19,744 shares to employees under
the DBP, and 298,395 shares to employees under the RBP.
On 3 August 2007 the Group issued awards over 717,900 shares to employees under the LTIP, 6,960 shares to employees under
the DBP, and 11,910 shares to employees under the RBP.
On 7 September 2007 the Group issued awards over 5,609 shares to employees under the RBP.
On 30 November 2007 the Group issued awards over 8,450 shares to employees under the LTIP, 28,400 shares to employees under
the DBP, and 7,256 shares to employees under the RBP.
At 31 March 2008 the Group’s Employee Benefit Trusts held 2,697,476 shares (2007: 3,251,358 shares) at a nominal value of £0.0m
(2007: £0.0m) and market value of £28.4m (2007: £31.6m).
For the purposes of valuing LTIP awards with market performance conditions, the Monte Carlo model has been used to arrive
at the share-based payments charge. The assumptions used in the model are as follows:
LTIP
LTIP
2008 2007
Exercise price £nil £nil
Risk-free interest rate n/a n/a
Discount in respect of dividend yield 0% 0%
Volatility of share price 22.6% 22.3% to 24.4%
Share price at grant date
– 11.09.2006 – 837.0p
– 03.08.2007 1,035.0p –
Option life 3 to 9 years 3 to 10 years
Expected exercise behaviour
– options 100% in year 4 100% in year 4
– allocations 100% year 4 100% year 4
Volatility was determined based on the movement in the share price over a period prior to the grant date equal in length to the period
over which the TSR condition applies, which equates to a three-year share price history (2007 a three-year share price history). The fair
value of share plans involving market performance conditions takes into account market information.
In accordance with the rules of the plan, the Monte Carlo model simulates TSR for the Company and a comparator group. In 2008 and
2007 the comparator group consisted of the FTSE 250 excluding investment trusts. The model takes into account historic dividends and
share price volatilities for the Company and the comparator group to produce a predicted distribution of relative share performance.
Awards that do not contain market performance conditions are valued at market value at date of award and discounted in the event
that the award does not benefit from dividends during the vesting period.
The weighted average fair value of awards granted during the year was 1,009.88p (2007: 797.50p).
WS Atkins plc Annual Report 2008