First National Capital, a full-service commercial equipment and aviation finance provider, terminated its Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) effective Dec. 31, 2024. During this period, share values for ESOP participants increased by 585%.
As a result of the termination, 39 current employees and several past employees have received a total distribution of $30.7 million in early 2025. The ESOP trust will still retain over 20% of the remaining shares, with the original equity holders owning the other majority interest.
In addition to the initial payments of $30.7 million, the most recent valuation establishes the retained employee ESOP ownership at $36.65 million, for a total employee estimated value of $67.35 million.
“The ESOP has proven to be exactly what I had hoped for our employees—a means to provide exceptional rewards to the dedicated team that has helped build First National Capital into a first-class organization,” Keith Duggan, CEO of First National Capital, said. “Faced with multiple options back in 2016, including selling to private equity, I made a conscious decision to create an equity structure that benefited both our employees and equity holders. Based on this outcome, the choice of an ESOP has clearly been the right one.”
“With the combined value of the initial payments, and the current valuation, we had 10 employees exceed $2 million in total value, and another five exceeded $3 million. Given the tax deferred nature of these payments, this is truly a life-changing event for many of our employees,” Duggan said. “I believe we are the only independent finance company that has ever created an ESOP structure, making this a unique and highly successful undertaking. I’m reasonably confident that none of our peers have established a compensation structure that created $67 million of additional employee wealth in a relatively short period of time. As we continue to grow, we hope our track record of success and shared success with our great team continues to attract top talent to the company. We look forward to a strong 2025 and beyond, as we all have a vested interest in FNCC’s continued success.”
