In todays business daily; kcb to offer employees 40m shares at a price of 20.00.

Shouldnt this be put to the shareholders for approval and why at a lesser price than the market price?

I believe shareholders have already approved the ESOP. As for the quantity and price, there should be a committee that looks at both value created for the shares. There is no point giving out discounted shares just as an incentive without performance criteria. And they should be locked in for 5 years!