An ESOP (Employee stock ownership plan) refers to an employee benefit plan which offers employees an ownership interest in the organization. Employee stock ownership plans are issued as direct stock, profit-sharing plans or bonuses, and the employer has the sole discretion in deciding who could avail of these options. However, Employee stock ownership plans are just options that could be purchased at a specified price before the exercise date. There are defined rules and regulations laid out in the Companies Rules which employers need to follow for granting of Employee stock ownership plans to their employees.
ESOPs help companies to reduce their operational expenses. Companies give less salary to their employees but compensate the same through ESOP shares. This will help start-ups to acquire talent at a lower cost.
For example, let us suppose the package of the employee in the company is 10 lakhs per annum. The company may give 8 lakhs as cash and rest 2 lakh in the form of ESOPs i.e. shares of the company.
ESOPs have a certain time frame before which they can be exercised. It means employees have to work in the company for a certain period to get eligible for buying shares of the company. Generally, ESOP shares are given in tranches of 25% every year and 100% gets completed in 4 years. As ESOP shares are issued in tranches, the attrition rate (the speed at which employees are leaving the organization) gets reduced considerably. Employees think that if they leave early, they will not get the benefit from ESOPs shares. So they work longer in the company.
Advantage of ESOPs for Employees?
ESOPs can be a game-changer for the employees. If an employee is having ESOP shares of a company that has become Unicorn-name given to the startup having valuation above $1 Billion dollars, then the value of those ESOP shares will make employees super-rich.
We have seen this in the case of Flipkart India, when it was purchased by Walmart at a whopping valuation of 1.16 lakh Crores in the year 2017-18. Flipkart India had given ESOP shares even to the drivers of the company. So in that deal, everyone got a big chunk of return on ESOP shares and after that deal, many became millionaires.
Similarly, Paytm has issued ESOP shares to its employees at Rs.90 per share and in the unlisted market, it was sold in the price range of 5k to 18k. So we can calculate the kind of return they have generated. Obviously, the number of shares given to employees under ESOP scheme depends upon a position in the company but even then the small number of ESOP shares can make an employee rich once the company’s valuation touches the unicorn status.
The problem for Employees?
Liquidation is the biggest problem for the employees who are having ESOPs of the startups. Let us suppose the employee has ESOP shares in his/her demat account. And he/she wants to sell ESOP shares to get some immediate funds. So what is the solution?
They can approach the company requesting to buyback those ESOP shares. This option is not viable most of the time.
For More Information Watch this video :
No comments:
Post a Comment