Employees could benefit from £82k cash boost due to new UK stock market
It's due to the government announcing the launch of PISCES, which is a new 'secondary market' that enables the trading of shares in private companies.
Essentially, this means that investors will be able to buy and sell existing shares in private companies.
Read more: Midlands areas named on new list of 'poorest' places in England
For employees who are part of an employee share scheme or have share options, this could open the door to another route to cash in on the equity they have with their employer.HMRC data shows that more than 20,000 companies currently operate at least one of the four Government-backed share schemes: the Enterprise Management Incentive (EMI), Company Share Option Plan (CSOP), Save as You Earn (SAYE), and the Share Incentive Plan (SIP).EMI is the most popular of these schemes, with 19,000 companies operating the scheme and 52,000 employees granted options through EMI in the tax year ending 2023, the most recent data published by HMRC.Analysis of HMRC data by sharetech platform Vestd shows that the 11,000 employees who exercised EMI options benefited from an average increase in value of almost £82,000.Yaroslav Kinebas, special project manager at sharetech platform Vestd, said:'The introduction of PISCES is great news for employees who are already part of a share scheme or have share options with their employer.'PISCES will give employees more control and another way of exercising their share options and accessing the value of the shares they own.
'Previously, this value was most commonly realised through a liquidity event like an acquisition or being listed on a public stock exchange, also known as an IPO, but employees at businesses that join PISCES will have more choice about how and when they decide to cash in on the rewards of their hard work.'
'Having 'skin in the game' is a powerful motivator for teams and should be the norm in every business. Employees having genuine ownership of their business is a great way to increase engagement and unite everyone behind a company's growth.'However, employee share ownership is still massively underutilised and I expect to see more employees demand equity as more companies join PISCES.'Almost 80% of FTSE100 listed companies offer at least one of the Government-backed share schemes, but fewer than 1% of SMEs are currently utilising them.'As well as the Government-supported schemes, there are a number of other options to share equity with your teams, including unapproved options and growth shares, which give employers more flexibility about how they share ownership.'
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