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For Immediate Release 2 November 2009

Pinewood Shepperton Plc Release of Awards under the Pinewood Shepperton Plc Long-Term Incentive Plan

Pinewood Shepperton Plc (the “Company”) announces the release of conditional share awards granted on 30 October 2006 and released on 30 October 2009 under the Pinewood Shepperton Plc Long-Term Incentive Plan to the executive directors as detailed in the table below.:-
Executive Number of Ordinary Shares
Ivan Dunleavy 30,540
Patrick Garner 25,067
Nicholas Smith 2,518

In accordance with the rules and the performance schedule, 50% of the award (Part 1 of the Award) is released based on the Company’s total shareholder return performance against a selected comparator group and 50% (Part 2 of the Award) is released based on the Company’s return on capital employed.

For Part 1 of the Award, executive directors have acquired 50.9% of shares subject to the award. No shares were released under Part 2 of the Award. As a consequence on 30 October 2009 the executives directors became the legal and beneficial owners of the number of ordinary shares of the Company, as detailed in the table above, at a price of 135.5 pence per ordinary share.

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Small comfort to those layed off recently by Pinewood. As Adrian Goldberg put it, they are not exactly “flush” at the moment  and £30 million can buy you a controlling interest. 

It cost £80 million to buy Birmingham City Football Club  which has very little land or international profile compared to Pinewood  and Shepperton.   

West Bromwich itself has spent £72 million on a thing called The Public of which the less said the better. There is huge money in The West Midlands.  Pinewood has glamour, prestige, industry reputation, land worth a mint if sold for other commercial use  but it is not exactly “flush” at the moment. It would jump through several hoops and swim through sharks for a donation of £72 million to its kitty. That is 24 times this year’s profits.  Embracing The West Midlands makes sense on every level.

By the way in a day or two expect them to sell some shares. Do not panic it will only be to meet a tax bill on shares received.

Of all the things Pinewood Studios could be such as private limited company, charity, government agency or quango, or public limited company….the one which makes it the most vulnerable to sudden foreign takeover by people with no interest in it continuing as a film factory facility…well that is the public limited company model. But by now you all know that. 

Jonathan Stuart-Brown

www.savethebritishfilmindustry.com