26.1.2 Stock Award Program and Other Share Based Payments
Non-Executive Directors Fees
During 2021, the Company issued 64,269 (60,204 in 2020 and 29,220 in 2019) shares to Non-Executive Directors in accordance with contracts as compensation, generating a share premium of US$ 861,000 (US$ 665,000 in 2020 and US$ 499,000 in 2019). The amount of shares issued is determined considering the contractual compensation and the fair value of the shares for each relevant period.
Stock Award Program and Other Share Based Payments
On November 12, 2020, 499,614 common shares were allotted to the trustee of the Employee Beneficiary Trust (“EBT”) to be assigned to certain employees as part of their 2019 bonus compensation, generating a share capital and share premium of US$ 1,000 and US$ 4,351,000, respectively.
On January 2, 2020 and 2019 (50%each year, as set up in the plan), the vested Value Creation Plan (“VCP”) awards, representing 2,976,781 common shares, was issued to key management (including 878,150 common shares issued to Directors involved in the performance of the Company), generating a share premium of US$ 4,668,000 (50% each year).
On July 8, 2019, 1,484,847 common shares were allotted to the trustee of the EBT to be assigned to employees since the 2016 and 2018 Plans vested, generating a share premium of US$ 4,311,000.
26.1.3 Buyback Program
On December 20, 2018, the Company’s Board of Directors approved a program to repurchase up to 10% of its shares outstanding or approximately 6,063,000 shares. The repurchase program began on December 21, 2018 and expired on December 31, 2019. During 2019, the Company purchased 4,318,320 common shares (145,917 in 2018) for a total amount of US$ 71,272,000 (US$ 1,801,000 in 2018). These transactions had no impact on the Group’s results.
On February 10, 2020, the Company’s Board of Directors approved another program to repurchase up to 10% of its shares outstanding or approximately 5,930,000 shares. The repurchase program began on February 11, 2020 and was suspended in April 2020 as part of the revised work program for 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic and the oil price crisis. During 2020, the Company purchased 316,445 common shares for a total amount of US$ 3,071,000. These transactions had no impact on the Group’s results.
On November 4, 2020, the Company’s Board of Directors approved a new program to repurchase up to 10% of its shares outstanding or approximately 6,062,000 shares. The repurchase program began on November 5, 2020 and was set to expire on November 15, 2021. On November 10, 2021, the Company’s Board of Directors approved the renewal of this repurchase program until November 10, 2022. During 2021, the Company purchased 960,454 common shares (101,986 in 2020) for a total amount of US$ 11,841,000 (US$ 938,000 in 2020). These transactions had no impact on the Group’s results.
26.2 Cash distributions
On November 6, 2019, the Company’s Board of Directors declared the initiation of a quarterly cash distribution of US$ 0.0413 per share. Consequently, on December 10, 2019 and April 8, 2020, US$ 2,444,000 and US$ 2,343,000 were distributed to shareholders, respectively. The quarterly cash distributions were temporary suspended from April 2020 as part of the revised work program for 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the oil price crisis.
On November 4, 2020, the Company’s Board of Directors declared an extraordinary cash distribution of US$ 0.0206 per share for 2020 and a quarterly cash distribution of US$ 0.0206 per share. Consequently, on December 9, 2020, US$ 2,516,000 were distributed to shareholders of record at the close of business on November 20, 2020.