JTC has granted share awards worth £20m to its global workforce as part of its long-established shared ownership programme.
The company employs more than 1,200 people across a network of 25 international offices and under its shared ownership model, every permanent employee is made an owner of the business. The company established its first employee benefit trust in 1998 and has made awards twice before, first in 2012 when £12m was shared and again in 2018, when £14m was shared. In total, JTC has created over £200m of value for its employee owners over the past 23 years, with much of that still held in the company. The business listed on the London Stock Exchange in 2018 and current employees own around a fifth of the issued share capital.
Shared ownership for all employees lies at the heart of JTC’s culture and is seen as a key differentiator in the professional services markets where it competes. In addition to supporting a culture of client service excellence, JTC believes that its shared ownership approach encourages greater employee engagement and the business enjoys sector-leading retention rates, averaging just 7.6% turnover for the last three years. JTC is also a leading provider of employee benefit solutions, supporting a global client base of some of the world’s largest blue chip institutions.
Employee shared ownership has become increasingly in vogue with the explosion of interest in environmental, social and governance (ESG) matters and JTC’s approach has attracted international interest and recognition, becoming the subject of a Harvard Business School MBA case study in 2019.
The latest shared ownership awards reflect the continued strong performance of the Group, which has a track record of revenue and profit growth spanning more than 30 years. Since listing in 2018 the business has doubled in size and entered the FTSE 250 index in December 2020. JTC PLC has a market cap of c. £820 m.
Nigel Le Quesne, CEO of JTC, said:
“JTC was one of the first professional services firms in our industry to recognise the importance of shared ownership in attracting and retaining high quality people, keeping them motivated and dedicated to delivering exceptional performance. In 1998, the management team seeded the first JTC Employee Benefit Trust, making all our employees ‘owners’ of the business. Subsequently JTC successfully implemented a number of additional equity incentive schemes further embedding our culture of ‘Ownership for All’.
“It was clear when the Company listed in March 2018 that our employee ownership culture would continue to be central to JTC’s values, and the EIP was adopted as a replacement for the EBT. On behalf of the Board, I would like to express our most sincere thanks for the incredible hard work, resilience and commitment of the entire JTC team, not least over the trying period of the pandemic. We very much look forward to once again building on our achievements as we work together to create and deliver even more value in the years ahead.”
JTC seeks to grow through a combination of strong organic growth, operational excellence and a disciplined approach to acquisitions. It operates in a global market that displays strong structural tailwinds and continues to consolidate.
