As a share option plan, the EMI offers selected participants (frequently, your key personnel) the opportunity to purchase shares at a specified time and at a price agreed at the time the options are granted.
When tailoring the scheme to the needs of the business, individual performance and retention conditions can be built in, to help ensure rewards are only distributed when important corporate objectives have been met.
Any full-time employee of a qualifying company may be granted tax-advantaged share options over shares with a market value of up to £250,000 at the time of the grant, subject to an overall company limit of £3 million. The shares must be in an independent trading company that has gross assets of no more than £30 million and with fewer than 250 employees.