Company: INKT
Filing Date: 2025-04-30
Form Type: DEF 14A
Source: 0000950170-25-061041
Chunk: 38

Company: MiNK Therapeutics, Inc.
Filing Date: 2025-04-30
Form: DEF 14A
Chunk 38
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 stockholders and the Company in order to provide meaningful and appropriate incentive to motivate and retain our talented team members.

Reasons for Seeking Stockholder Approval

We are asking our stockholders to approve the Option Exchange to restore equity value, increase retention and motivation in a competitive labor market, provide non-cash compensation incentives and align our employee and stockholder interests to promote long-term value creation. We compete for talent in an extremely competitive industry, often with larger pharmaceutical companies with greater resources. We believe that our ability to effectively compensate with equity awards is essential to our efforts to attract and retain top talent. Equity awards are an essential part of our compensation package, are central to our employment value proposition, and restoring equity value is necessary for us to retain our employees and other service providers and continue competing for top talent. Underwater stock option awards are of limited benefit in motivating and retaining our key talent and aligning their interests with those of our stockholders. Through the Option Exchange, we believe that we will be able to enhance long-term stockholder value

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by increasing our ability to retain experienced and talented employees, consultants, executives, and non-employee directors and by aligning the interests of these individuals more fully with the interests of our stockholders.

Our equity program primarily consists of time-based stock options, performance-based stock options, and time-based restricted stock units. In addition, in 2024 we used stock options as a way to further tie the interests of our executive officers and other key employees with those of our stockholders through the payment of their 2023 annual incentive bonuses in the form of time-based options in lieu of cash. Although the Company has not yet paid annual incentive bonus amounts for 2024, if we do pay such amounts we may pay all or a potion of such amounts in the form of equity awards consistent with our practice in prior years. Option grants can serve as a powerful retentive tool based on stock price appreciation. In the last several years we have experienced a significant decline in our stock price causing the vast majority of our outstanding options to have exercise prices that exceed the recent trading prices of our common stock. As of April 24, 2025, 77% of outstanding stock options held by Eligible Holders were underwater and 77% have an exercise price of $8.50 per share or higher. The significant decline in the price of our common stock has a meaningful impact on the total compensation actually earned by our employees, consultants, and non-employee directors.