16Related party transactions
Key management personnel compensation
Key management personnel are the members of the Board and executive officers.
| | | | |
| | June 30, | | June 30, |
| | 2024 | | 2023 |
| | £ 000 | | £ 000 |
Salaries and other short term employee benefits | | 625 | | 460 |
Payments to defined contribution pension schemes | | 7 | | 7 |
Share-based payments | | 1,325 | | 56 |
| | 1,957 | | 523 |
Aggregate gains made on the exercise of share options for the Directors during the period totalled £nil thousand (June 30, 2023: £8,156 thousand).
Summary of transactions with other related parties
On September 11, 2023 the Company appointed Stuart Simpson as Chief Financial Officer and on May 1, 2024 the Company appointed Stuart Simpson as Chief Executive Officer, replacing Stephen Fitzpatrick who remains a member of the Board of Directors. Subsequent to the period end, on July 1, 2024, Stuart Simpson was awarded 2 million share options, vesting on a quarterly basis until March 31, 2028.
Also on May 1, 2024 the Company appointed Ben Story as a member of the Board of Directors. During the period a total of 322,469 share options and restricted stock units were awarded to independent members of the Board of Directors.
On February 22, 2024 the Company entered into the SF Investment Agreement with Imagination Aero Ltd., a company wholly owned by Stephen Fitzpatrick, pursuant to which Imagination Aero agreed to purchase, and the Company agreed to issue and sell to Imagination Aero, up to $50 million of (i) newly issued ordinary shares and (ii) 50,000,000 SF Warrants. In accordance with the SF Investment Agreement, on March 13, 2024, $25 million in gross proceeds were received and, in the third quarter of 2024, subject to the terms of the SF Investment Agreement, the Company expects to receive up to an additional $25 million in consideration for additional newly issued ordinary shares.
On August 14, 2024, the Company and Imagination Aero mutually agreed an amendment to the SF Investment Agreement, whereby the remainder of Imagination Aero’s purchase commitment, comprising up to $25 million of newly issued ordinary shares of the Company, falls due no later than 10 business days of December 31, 2024.
In the first six months of 2024, Imagination Industries Ltd, a company controlled by Stephen Fitzpatrick provided and charged the Group with services totalling £42 thousand (2023: £42 thousand), of which £21 thousand was outstanding as at June 30, 2024 (June 30, 2023: £nil).
17Correction of error
In March 2024, the Group identified an error related to the classification of the SME tax relief that it generates from HMRC in its statements of income and comprehensive income for the six-month period ended June 30, 2023 and for the three- and nine-month periods ended September 30, 2023. During the periods noted, the tax credit was erroneously classified within other operating income.
Whilst the Group experiences recurring unrelieved trading losses, it elects to surrender such losses and, instead, claim a payable tax credit. Accordingly, the SME tax credit should have been classified as an income tax credit rather than as other operating income within the statements of income and comprehensive income.