By Conrad Tan

OCBC Bank has granted chairman Cheong Choong Kong more than 230,000 share options - the most he has received since being appointed chairman in July 2003.

In a stock exchange filing yesterday, OCBC said that on Monday it granted 233,727 share options to Mr Cheong, and another 3.15 million share options to executives of the group, excluding him, under its employee share option scheme.

The share options give them the right to acquire OCBC shares at $8.762 each, but no earlier than March 16 next year. Under the bank's rules, the exercise price is calculated as the average of the last-traded prices for OCBC shares on each of the five consecutive trading days just before the share options are granted.

OCBC's share price ended 1.8 per cent higher at $8.95 yesterday.

The options granted to Mr Cheong are valid for four years, while the options for the group executives are valid for nine years, starting next March.

Mr Cheong, a non-executive member of OCBC's board, received 162,958 share options at an exercise price of $4.138 for his performance in 2008. He was the only board member to receive options that year.

He received 200,000 options at an exercise price of $7.52 in 2007, and 183,600 options at an exercise price of $6.82 in 2006.

In 2005, he received 216,000 options at an exercise price of $5.767 - the largest number of options he received in a given year before the most recent award.

The highest exercise price of any options he received was in 2004, when he was granted 48,000 share options at an exercise price of $12.34. He received no options in 2003.

Rival DBS Group has made no grants under its share option plan since 2006. Instead, the bank has paid stock-related bonuses to its chairman Koh Boon Hwee under a separate share plan, which grants ordinary-share awards that take up to three years to vest fully.

At United Overseas Bank, too, its original share option scheme has been phased out, in favour of two newer share-based compensation plans that award ordinary shares and option-like rights to acquire shares, which are tied to the bank's return on equity.

This article was first published in The Business Times.