Company share offer

[fourstardan]

Hi,

My company are offering me a free single share as a "gesture".

Am I just being too cynical and they have a long term motive on how to apportion bonuses etc or is there nothing really more than gesture in this?

Is it to buy back a level of shares privately again?

[anonymous-user]

That depends

If the total number of shares issued is 2 and the company is worth £100m then the gesture is a generous one

If the total number of shares issued is hundreds of millions and the company is worthless then it is less generous

[hyphen]

You don't for Aston Martin do you?

[fourstardan]

hyphen said:

You don't for Aston Martin do you?

No, company car scheme not upto scratch

[anonymous-user]

fourstardan said:

My company are offering me a free single share as a "gesture".

The big questions are, "What sort of company do you work for?" and "How many shares are in issue?".

• Public listed company - like Tesco - with millions of shares that are easily traded on the stock exchange?
• Large private company - with quite a few shares and shareholders - not listed on a stock exchange but a reasonable possibility of selling your share to other existing shareholders at a sensible price?
• Small private company with owner/directors doing as they please - a single share might not be worth a row of beans.
• Very small private company where you are a key employee - owner/director owns 10 shares and is essentially giving you 10% of the company to keep you on board. Might be worth a small fortune one day or might not be worth a row of beans, depending how business goes and how the owner behaves.

[anonymous-user]

Just be careful of any tax implications.

I have been ‘gifted’ £20,000 of shares in my company but have opted to receive them over 5 years so that I don’t have to pay the tax in the same year. The flip side is that I am tied in for 5 years as they can’t be sold for the first 5 years.

[Miocene]

Was this available from the 16th via a large German parent company by any chance?