What happens to SAYE shares if company is bought-out

[torqueofthedevil]

I am currently in a SAYE scheme where I will have the option to purchase shares next February.

If the company i work for is bought out how does this affect the option that I have?

[tjk123]

You can often exercise the option early if the company is bought out, possibly at the offer price of whatever the purchaser of your employer is paying per share. It depends on the scheme rules though and the circumstances of the buyout and when the option is due to mature.

[plfrench]

It worked out really well for me when this happened to my company. They amount the buying company had to pay in order to secure the deal was over 3 times what the previous market value was for the shares.

They paid us out of whatever we'd bought up to that time. Nice lump sum!

[Phateuk]

torqueofthedevil said:

I am currently in a SAYE scheme where I will have the option to purchase shares next February.

If the company i work for is bought out how does this affect the option that I have?

This happened at a previous company I worked for, we were told by our CEO the minimum price that would be accepted for the share buyout. This was lower than the SAYE purchase price we would get. Due to the uncertainty over the buyout the company share price plummeted, so knowing the buyout price, I cashed out my SAYE money and purchased shares myself. Post-buyout (2 months later) I sold for ~130% profit