Haydale Graphene Industries plc

("Haydale", the "Company" or the "Group")

Grant of Share Options, Surrender of Existing Options and PDMR Dealings

Grant of New Stock Appreciation Rights and Options

Haydale (AIM: HAYD), the global advanced materials group, announces that on 30 April 2024 the Company approved the following:

1.    under the 2020 EMI Scheme as amended ("2020 EMI Scheme"), the grant of options to certain overseas based employees of the Group, over an aggregate 12,500,000 ordinary shares of 0.1p each in the capital of the Company ("Ordinary Shares"); and

2.    under the Haydale Technologies, Inc ("HTI") 2020 Stock Appreciation Rights Plan as amended ("2020 SAR"), the grant of stock appreciation rights ("Stock Appreciation Rights" or ''SARs'') to a director and certain employees of the Group's wholly owned US subsidiary, HTI, over an aggregate 44,000,000 Ordinary Shares.

(The 2020 EMI Scheme and the 2020 SAR, together the "Share Schemes". The new Options or Stock Appreciation Rights granted under the Share Schemes, together the "New Options")

Background to the New Options grants

The Company adopted the Share Schemes to enable it to retain and incentivise staff and to reward them for the achievement of its longer-term objectives. The options granted under the Share Schemes have certain performance and / or length of tenure criteria as set out below. The New Options replace 19,250,000 current options and SARs held by existing holders and extend awards to include those who have more recently joined the Group. The New Options were granted on the same terms to the UK based employees and directors in January 2024.

Terms of the New Options

All of the New Options have an exercise price of 0.5 pence per Ordinary Share (being a 9.89% premium to the closing mid-market price of the Company's Ordinary Shares on 1 May 2024, the day of the approval of the New Options grant). The proportion of the total New Options award to each individual is capable of vesting dependent on certain share price performance and / or length of tenure criteria (approved by the Remuneration Committee) as follows:

All New Options with a share price based performance condition can only be exercised on or after the third anniversary of grant. If the share price does not reach the target price by their respective dates, that portion of the award will lapse.

There are no other vesting criteria for the New Options.

Surrender of existing options and SARs

In January 2020, January 2022, November 2022 and April 2023, the Company granted options and SARs to acquire Ordinary Shares in the capital of the Company to certain employees and directors of the Company's subsidiaries pursuant to the Share Schemes.  It is a condition of the grant of New Options that the remaining rights to the 2020, 2022 and 2023 Options are surrendered for no consideration (the "Option Surrender").

The options and SARs previously granted in 2020, January 2022, November 2022 and 2023 were priced at 2.25p, 6.25p, 2.25p and 2.25p, respectively. The board believe it is appropriate to issue new share options in replacement of the existing ones to reflect the Company's current share price to properly incentivise its employees, including its management.

Details of resultant holdings

Following the New Options grant and the Option Surrender, details of New Options held by PDMRs and other employees of the Company's overseas subsidiaries, are as follows:

Following the New Options grant and the Option Surrender, the Company's total number of Options and SARS under the 2020 Schemes as at the date of this announcement is 207,000,000 representing approximately 11.5% of the Company's existing issued share capital and 10.3% on a fully diluted basis including all outstanding warrants.

The number of Ordinary Shares currently in issue is 1,798,462,051 and it is this number that has been used to calculate the above percentage shareholdings.

For further information:

Notes to Editors

Haydale is a global technologies and materials group that facilitates the integration of graphene and other nanomaterials into the next generation of commercial technologies and industrial materials.  With expertise in graphene, silicon carbide and other nanomaterials, Haydale is able to deliver improvements in electrical, thermal and mechanical properties, as well as toughness.  Haydale has granted patents for its technologies in Europe, USA, Australia, Japan and China and operates from five sites in the UK, USA and the Far East.

For more information please visit: www.haydale.com

LinkedIn:             Haydale-ltd

X:                            @haydalegraphene

The notification set out below is provided in accordance with the requirements of MAR.