Employee share plans/PreIPO

Employee incentive plans can take many forms including direct or shadow shares, options and others, all of which seek to motivate and incentivize employees beyond the scope of traditional compensation packages.

We provide advisory, establishment and ongoing management of employee benefit schemes including jurisdictional tax reporting as required.

A Pre-IPO Trust is commonly by the founders and substantial shareholders of companies which are about to go public. The founders and shareholders can transfer their company shares into a holding vehicle under a trust structure before the company is listed. The advantages of such arrangements are:

• Protection of the founders’ own wealth, while ensuring the benefits pass to their beneficiaries without probate and avoiding family disputes on ownership

• Avoid the risk of dilution in the control of the company

• Providing more efficient tax planning for the founders of a company before the company is listed

• Avoiding the risk of a delay in listing and the IPO failing after listing by establishing a robust trust structure to mitigate shareholding problems in the event of death or incapacitation of the founders.