Company Announcements

7 June 2022 

Keystone Law Group plc

('Keystone' or the 'Group' or 'Company')

Director / PDMR shareholding

Keystone Law Group plc (AIM: KEYS), the fast growing, UK Top 100, challenger law firm, announces that the following awards have been granted over £0.002 ordinary shares in the capital of the Company under the Keystone Law Long Term Incentive Plan 2018 ('LTIP').

The LTIP Awards have been granted as performance share awards and will vest on the third anniversary of their grant subject to the grantee's continued employment and to the extent to which the adjusted Earnings Per Share ('EPS') and Relative Total Shareholder Return ('TSR') performance conditions set out in the LTIP Award are met. 

70% of the LTIP Awards will be assessed on growth in underlying adjusted EPS⁽¹⁾ over the three-year period, with compound annual growth ('CAGR') of less than 4.0% delivering none of this element of the LTIP Award, 4.0% CAGR delivering 20% of this element of the LTIP Award and 100% of this element being granted for delivery of 7.3% CAGR in underlying adjusted EPS over the three-year period.  These reflect the current proposed increase in UK corporation tax rate and the Remuneration Committee retains the right to make appropriate amendments to these in the event of a material change to the rate during the vesting period.

30% of the LTIP Awards will be assessed on the TSR of the Company over the three-year period relative to that of those companies included in the FTSE Fledgling Index throughout the Performance Period; with 100% being awarded for performance in the top quartile, 50% for performance in the second quartile and nothing awarded for performance below the median.

In addition, the recipients of the LTIP Awards will be required to retain shares awarded under the LTIP awards for two years from the vesting date subject to the ability to sell sufficient shares to discharge any tax liability.

(1)    As reported in April 2022, profits for the for year ended 31 January 2022 were enhanced due to the particularly strong client demand across the legal sector which we believe to have been caused by the release of pent up demand following lockdown restrictions in the previous year as well as cost savings due to COVID-19 restrictions.  The combined impact of these on adjusted PBT was approx. £1m which in turn meant that underlying adjusted EPS for the period would have been 21.0p.

Set out below are the notifications, made in accordance with the requirements of the Market Abuse Regulation, in relation to the variation of the LTIP Awards.

-ENDS-

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Notes to editors

Keystone is an award-winning law firm, providing conventional legal services to SMEs and high net worth individuals in a £9bn addressable market.

Keystone has a scalable and unique model, with three defining characteristics:

·      Our lawyers have freedom, flexibility and autonomy, and are paid up to 75% of what they bill.

·      Our lawyers determine how, when and where they work, in contrast to the conventional law firm model.

·      We offer lawyers full infrastructure and support via its central office team, bespoke user-friendly IT platform, and network of colleagues and events.

Keystone is a full-service law firm, with 20 service areas and more than 50 industry sectors delivered by nearly 400 high calibre self-employed Principal lawyers who work from their own offices.

In November 2020, Keystone was named Law Firm of the Year by The Lawyer, the first time a 'new' law firm has won the award.

More information about Keystone can be found at www.keystonelaw.co.uk.