IFG Group plc is a financial services company, headquartered in Dublin, quoted on both the London and Dublin stock exchange.  At IFG we do not believe in one size fits all, as we recognise that each company has different requirements.  The international division of IFG has offices in Jersey, Isle of Man, London, Geneva, Cyprus and Spain from which we provide a full range of corporate trustee and company management services. In the context of equity incentives, we specialise in the provision of Corporate Trustee services for Employee Benefit Trusts.

The use of Employee Benefit Trusts for funding equity incentive arrangements has become commonplace in many countries, particularly among those in Western Europe, where:-

• • there is a legal prohibition on a company holding treasury stock;
• • institutional investor or stock exchange rules limit the number of new shares a company may issue to satisfy employee equity incentive arrangements, but do not limit existing shares that may be used for these purposes; and
• • as is the case in the UK, corporate law bars or effectively discourages (by requiring independent valuations, reports, etc) companies from issuing free shares directly to their employees.

Consequently, many companies use Employee Benefit Trusts to purchase shares in the public markets in order to overcome the constraints, to help limit future dilution or simply to hold shares earmarked for future employee equity  incentive arrangements.