Shares in Brave Bison (AIM:BBSN), the digital media and marketing company, rose 8% to 88.26p after the company published details of a new long-term incentive plan that ties executive pay firmly to substantial share price gains.
The plan, proposed for approval at the annual general meeting on 17 June, works by setting a hard hurdle: the two executive participants, chief executives Oliver Green and Theodore Green, receive nothing unless the share price first reaches 150p, an 88% increase from the 80p baseline.
That structure matters to investors because it means the executives only get paid when shareholders have already made substantial returns, making the plan largely self-funding from value created rather than a cost imposed regardless of performance.
Above 150p, the executives can collectively earn up to 12% of the value created for shareholders, split equally between them, with each payout capped at £15m. Total dilution to existing shareholders is capped at 6% of issued share capital.
The hurdle also rises by 8% each year through compounding, meaning the executives cannot simply wait out the clock and collect rewards from modest appreciation. The bar gets higher every year the share price stands still.
The plan runs for a minimum of three years from January 2026, with any awards redeemable between January 2029 and December 2031.
A previous version of the plan, adopted in 2021, delivered total shareholder returns of 176% over its life, equivalent to a compound annual growth rate of around 31%, which helps explain why shareholders are receptive to a similar structure this time around.
The plan was developed following consultation with shareholders representing around 70% of the issued share capital, with its final terms reflecting revisions made in response to that feedback.