CRAWLEY, The United Kingdom, Sept. 22, 2003 (PRIMEZONE) -- Spirent plc (LSE:SPT) (NYSE:SPM) announces that the Option Exchange Offer which commenced on August 15, 2003 under the Option Exchange Program ("OEP") expired at 5pm US Eastern Time on September 15, 2003. Under the OEP, eligible employees who, as at August 15, 2003, held outstanding options under the Spirent Stock Option Plan with an exercise price of GBP1.40 per share or greater ("Underwater Options"), could tender their Underwater Options in exchange for the grant of options (the "Replacement Options").
Spirent has accepted for exchange Underwater Options to purchase 28,557,785 Ordinary shares. The Underwater Options accepted for exchange were cancelled on September 18, 2003. On the same day, Spirent issued Replacement Options to purchase up to 4,792,301 Ordinary shares. The exercise price per Ordinary share of a Replacement Option is the fair market value of an Ordinary share at the close of business on September 18, 2003 as derived from the Official List of the London Stock Exchange, plus 20 per cent of that market value. On September 18, 2003, the closing price for an Ordinary share was 56.25 pence. Consequently, the exercise price of a Replacement Option is 67.5 pence.
The Schedule TO, which formed part of the Option Exchange Program documentation filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, has been amended to include the results of the Option Exchange Offer, as summarised above.
The Amended Schedule TO plus a communication to be circulated to OEP eligible employees confirming the results of the Option Exchange Offer have been submitted to the UK Listing Authority, and will be available for inspection from September 22, 2003 at the UK Listing Authority's Document Viewing Facility, which is situated at:
Financial Services Authority 25 The North Colonnade Canary Wharf London E14 5HS Tel: +44 (0) 20 7066 1000
Copies of the above documents are also being filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and are available for inspection at http://www.sec.gov.
Yours faithfully
Warren Nash
This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange