Konecranes’ long-term incentives consist of Performance Share Plan (PSP) and Restricted Share Unit Plan (RSU) for selected key employees, and Employee Share Savings Plan (ESSP) for all employees.
The aim of these incentive plans is to align the objectives of the shareholders and the plan participants, to retain the plan participants at the company, to reward them for achieving Board established targets and to offer them competitive reward plans that are based on earning and accumulating the company’s shares.
Performance Share Plan (PSP)
The aim of Konecranes’ Performance Share Plans is to align the objectives of shareholders and Konecranes’ key employees to increase the value of the Company, to commit key employees to the Company and to reward employees for achieving set targets. The actual grant is directly linked to Key Performance Indicators supporting long-term shareholder return and applies multi-year performance period.
All the active PSP plans in 2024 had three-year performance periods, but the measurement periods vary. The PSP plans launched in 2021 and 2022 have three separate one-year-long measurement periods within the three-year performance period. Due to the uncertainty caused by the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, 2021, the war in Ukraine in 2022, as well as the planned merger announcement made in 2020*, the Board of Directors decided to apply one-year-long measurement periods instead of three-year-long periods for the Plans started in 2021 and 2022 to enable efficient and relevant target-setting. Despite the one-year-long measurement periods of PSP plans 2021 and 2022, remuneration is paid only after the three-year-long performance period. The PSP 2023 and PSP 2024 plans have one earnings and measurement period covering three years.
The potential rewards from the PSP plans will be paid partly in shares and partly in cash. The cash proportion is intended to cover taxes and tax-related costs arising from the rewards to the plan participants. As a rule, no reward will be paid if the plan participant’s employment or service ends before the reward payment.
Performance Share Plan 2021-2023 (paid in 2024)
The 2021–2023 PSP plan had a three-year-long performance period with three separate one-year-long measurement periods. The Board of Directors has annually resolved the criterion and separate targets for each measurement period, and the criterion for all measurement periods (2021, 2022 and 2023) was comparable EPS. Items affecting comparability of the EPS included defined restructuring costs, mergers and acquisitions related transaction costs and other unusual items. The target group of the plan for the performance period 2020–2022 consisted of a maximum of 170 key employees of the Konecranes Group. The rewards paid on the basis of the performance period corresponded to the value of a maximum total of 634,921 Konecranes shares, including the proportion paid in cash. The outcome for the measurement period 2021 was 100 percent, the outcome for the measurement period 2022 was 11 percent and the outcome for the measurement period 2023 was 100 percent. As a result, the total outcome of the plan was 70 percent.
Performance Share Plan 2022-2024 (payable in 2025)
The 2022–2024 plan has a three-year-long performance period with three separate one-year-long measurement periods and separate targets for 2022, 2023 and 2024. The criterion for the measurement periods 2022, 2023 and 2024 is comparable EPS. Items affecting comparability of the EPS include defined restructuring costs, mergers and acquisitions related transaction costs and other unusual items. The target group of the plan for the performance period 2022–2024 consists of a maximum of 170 key employees of the Konecranes Group. The rewards to be paid on the basis of the performance period correspond to the value of a maximum total of 600,000 Konecranes shares, including the proportion to be paid in cash. The outcome for the measurement period 2022 was 11 percent, the outcome for the measurement period 2023 was 100 percent and the outcome for the measurement period 2024 was 100 percent. As a result, the total outcome of the plan was 70 percent. The rewards will be paid in 2025.
Performance Share Plan 2023-2025 (payable in 2026)
The 2023–2025 plan has a three-year performance period from 2023 to 2025. The plan has two performance criteria: the cumulative comparable Earnings per Share (EPS) for the financial years 2023–2025 with a 60 percent weighting and the compound annual growth rate (CAGR) for Sales for the financial years 2023–2025 with a 40 percent weighting. Items affecting comparability of the EPS include defined restructuring costs, mergers and acquisitions related transaction costs and other unusual items. The target group of the Plan consists of a maximum of 170 Konecranes key employees. The rewards to be paid on the basis of the performance period 2023–2025 correspond to the value of a maximum total of 700,000 Konecranes Plc shares. The potential rewards will be paid in 2026 if the plan’s terms and conditions are met.
Performance Share Plan 2024-2026 (payable in 2027)
The 2024–2026 plan has a three-year performance period from 2024 to 2026. The plan has three performance criteria: the cumulative comparable Earnings per Share (EPS) for the financial years 2024–2026 with a 55 percent weighting, the compound annual growth rate (CAGR) for Sales for the financial years 2024–2026 with a 35 percent weighting and CO2 emissions, own operations, with a 10 percent weighting. Items affecting comparability of the EPS include defined restructuring costs, mergers and acquisitions related transaction costs and other unusual items. The target group of the Plan consists of a maximum of 170 Konecranes key employees. The rewards to be paid on the basis of the performance period 2024–2026 correspond to the value of a maximum total of 600,000 Konecranes Plc shares. The potential rewards will be paid in 2027 if the plan’s terms and conditions are met.
Restricted Share Unit Plan 2017 (RSU)
In addition to the Performance Share Plan, Konecranes has a Restricted Share Unit Plan (RSU), which can be used for retention purposes under special conditions. The vesting periods can last from 12 to 36 months. The prerequisite for reward payment is that a key employee’s employment or service continues until the end of the vesting period. The rewards to be allocated on the basis of the entire plan will amount to a maximum total of 200,000 Konecranes shares, including the proportion to be paid in cash. The Board of Directors may decide to settle the full award in shares, taxable by the participant.
Recently, there was only one participant in the RSU 2017 plan: the Konecranes President and CEO Anders Svensson, who joined the Company in October 2022. He was allocated 17,170 gross shares, of which 40 percent vested on December 31, 2023, and 60 percent vested on December 31, 2024, with a share delivery of 10,302 gross shares in January 2025. The first 40% was paid in shares and the remaining 60% was settled in shares (50%) and in cash (50%) to cover taxes. The President and CEO was the only participant in the RSU plan, and as he has now received the RSU-based compensation, there are no other participants in the plan.
Ownership Obligations
A member of the Konecranes Leadership Team must hold a minimum of 50 per cent of any net shares given on the basis of these plans, until the member’s shareholding in the company in total corresponds to the value of the member’s annual salary and the member’s membership in the Konecranes Leadership Team or the Senior Management continues.
Malus and Clawback Conditions
The Board shall have the right to cancel any short-term and long-term incentive reward, fully or partly, if the Group’s financial statements have to be amended and those amendments affect the amount of the reward, if the Plan’s performance criteria and Performance Requirement have been manipulated, or in case of any action against the business interest of the Company or against criminal or employment related law or against the ethical guidance of the Company or any other unethical action, as resolved by the Board in each case.
Employee Share Savings Plan (ESSP)
In 2012, Konecranes launched an Employee Share Savings Plan for all employees, including the Management, except in those countries where the plan could not be offered for legal or administrative reasons. The Board had decided to launch a new ESSP plan annually since the start of the program.
Participants can monthly save a sum of up to 5 percent of their gross salary, which is used to buy Konecranes shares from the market on behalf of the participants. If participants are still in possession of these shares after an approximately three-year-long holding period, they will receive one matching share for every two initially purchased shares.
This ESSP plan is also available to the President and CEO, as well as the Deputy CEO. The President and CEO participates in the ESSP 2024 plan, which is currently in its savings period, with potential rewards due in 2028. Both the President and CEO and the Deputy CEO participate in the ESSP 2023, which is currently in its holding period, with potential rewards due in 2027. The Deputy CEO also participated in the ESSP 2022 plan, which is currently in its holding period, with potential rewards due in 2026.
