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Flight Centre Travel Group to gift $35 million in shares and cash to retain its staff

Around 10,000 Flight Centre Travel Group (FCTG) sales and support staff are each set to receive additional shares in the company or cash worth up to $3750 as part of a multi-million-dollar retention initiative.

Around 10,000 Flight Centre Travel Group (FCTG) sales and support staff are each set to receive additional shares in the company or cash worth up to $3750 as part of a multi-million-dollar retention initiative.

The 40-year-old Brisbane-based company today unveiled plans on the ASX to extend its Global Retention Rights* (GRR) program, a tailored retention initiative that was introduced during the 2022 fiscal year (FY22) to counter the pandemic’s impacts on the business and its people, for a further 12 months.

Under the GRR program, staff globally (excluding board members and senior executives) will be granted share rights if they continue their careers at FCTG during what is expected to be a post-COVID recovery phase.

The proposed offering beginning from the new financial year FY23 (1 July 2022) will see most of FLT’s people globally offered a one-off grant of share rights valued in the order of AU$3750, with employees in locations where the company does not operate share plans being offered a similar cash benefit at the end of the period (rather than shares).

FC_Captain
FC_Captain

FY23 rights are intended to be issued in August 2022 and will vest when the company releases its December 2023 half-yearly results in February 2024.

GRR participants who meet the continuous employment condition through to December 31 2023 will then be able to convert their rights to ordinary FLT shares.

In total, about 10,000 people are expected to receive shares or cash via the FY23 offer at an expected one-off cost between $30 million and $35 million.

Managing director Skroo Turner said the GRR program was a targeted response to the last two year’s impacts on the business and was aligned with FLT’s key strategic objectives.

“The GRR program is a material investment in the people who are integral to both our recovery and our future success and we believe it is contributing to the healthy overall retention rates we are seeing,” he said.

“It is first and foremost a retention program that encourages our people to continue their careers with us during what we believe will be an important period in our recovery.

Skroo Turner
Skroo Turner, Flight Centre’s managing director

“Travel is rebounding but there is added complexity, which once again underlines the value of our people and their expertise.

“By extending this innovative and popular program for an additional 12 months, we are encouraging people to continue their careers with us as the recovery takes off and confidence returns, which will help alleviate some of the staffing pressures we are currently experiencing.

“It will also provide a secondary mechanism to alleviate wage pressures globally; and strengthen the alignment between the interests of our people and our shareholder’s given increased employee ownership in the company, which is one of our company’s core philosophies,” he said.

For more, head to www.fctgl.com