Share-based and Deferred Compensation Plans

Overview

At year end 2015, we had four stock award plans in effect: the YUM! Brands, Inc. Long-Term Incentive Plan and the 1997 Long-Term Incentive Plan (collectively the “LTIPs”), the YUM! Brands, Inc. Restaurant General Manager Stock Option Plan (“RGM Plan”) and the YUM! Brands, Inc. SharePower Plan (“SharePower”). Under all our plans, the exercise price of stock options and SARs granted must be equal to or greater than the average market price or the ending market price of the Company’s stock on the date of grant.

Potential awards to employees and non-employee directors under the LTIPs include stock options, incentive stock options, SARs, restricted stock, stock units, restricted stock units (“RSUs”), performance restricted stock units, performance share units (“PSUs”) and performance units. We have issued only stock options, SARs, RSUs and PSUs under the LTIPs. While awards under the LTIPs can have varying vesting provisions and exercise periods, outstanding awards under the LTIPs vest in periods ranging from immediate to five years. Stock options and SARs expire ten years after grant.

Potential awards to employees under the RGM Plan include stock options, SARs, restricted stock and RSUs. We have issued only stock options and SARs under this plan. RGM Plan awards granted have a four-year cliff vesting period and expire ten years after grant. Certain RGM Plan awards are granted upon attainment of performance conditions in the previous year. Expense for such awards is recognized over a period that includes the performance condition period.

Potential awards to employees under SharePower include stock options, SARs, restricted stock and RSUs. We have issued only stock options and SARs under this plan. These awards generally vest over a period of four years and expire ten years after grant.

At year end 2015, approximately 13 million shares were available for future share-based compensation grants under the above plans.

Our Executive Income Deferral (“EID”) Plan allows participants to defer receipt of a portion of their annual salary and all or a portion of their incentive compensation. As defined by the EID Plan, we credit the amounts deferred with earnings based on the investment options selected by the participants. These investment options are limited to cash, phantom shares of our Common Stock, phantom shares of a Stock Index Fund and phantom shares of a Bond Index Fund. Investments in cash and phantom shares of both index funds will be distributed in cash at a date as elected by the employee and therefore are classified as a liability on our Consolidated Balance Sheets. We recognize compensation expense for the appreciation or the depreciation, if any, of investments in cash and both of the index funds. Deferrals into the phantom shares of our Common Stock will be distributed in shares of our Common Stock, under the LTIPs, at a date as elected by the employee and therefore are classified in Common Stock on our Consolidated Balance Sheets. We do not recognize compensation expense for the appreciation or the depreciation, if any, of investments in phantom shares of our Common Stock. Our EID plan also allows certain participants to defer incentive compensation to purchase phantom shares of our Common Stock and receive a 33% Company match on the amount deferred. Deferrals receiving a match are similar to a RSU award in that participants will generally forfeit both the match and incentive compensation amounts deferred if they voluntarily separate from employment during a vesting period that is two years from the date of deferral. We expense the intrinsic value of the match and the incentive compensation over the requisite service period which includes the vesting period.

Historically, the Company has repurchased shares on the open market in excess of the amount necessary to satisfy award exercises and expects to continue to do so in 2016.

Award Valuation

We estimated the fair value of each stock option and SAR award as of the date of grant using the Black-Scholes option-pricing model with the following weighted-average assumptions:



	2015		2014		2013
Risk-free interest rate	1.3	%	1.6	%	0.8	%
Expected term (years)	6.4		6.2		6.2
Expected volatility	26.9	%	29.7	%	29.9	%
Expected dividend yield	2.2	%	2.1	%	2.1	%

We believe it is appropriate to group our stock option and SAR awards into two homogeneous groups when estimating expected term. These groups consist of grants made primarily to restaurant-level employees under the RGM Plan, which cliff-vest after four years and expire ten years after grant, and grants made to executives under our other stock award plans, which typically have a graded vesting schedule of 25% per year over four years and expire ten years after grant. We use a single weighted-average term for our awards that have a graded vesting schedule. Based on analysis of our historical exercise and post-vesting termination behavior, we have determined that our restaurant-level employees and our executives exercised the awards on average after 4.75 years and 6.5 years, respectively.

When determining expected volatility, we consider both historical volatility of our stock as well as implied volatility associated with our publicly traded options. The expected dividend yield is based on the annual dividend yield at the time of grant.

The fair values of RSU awards are based on the closing price of our Common Stock on the date of grant. The fair values of PSU awards granted prior to 2013 are based on the closing price of our Common Stock on the date of grant. Beginning in 2013, the Company grants PSU awards with market-based conditions which have been valued based on the outcome of a Monte Carlo simulation.

Award Activity

Stock Options and SARs



	Shares (in thousands)			Weighted-Average Exercise Price		Weighted- Average Remaining Contractual Term (years)	Aggregate Intrinsic Value (in millions)
Outstanding at the beginning of the year	27,172			$	46.68
Granted	3,811			74.32
Exercised	(4,089	)		35.25
Forfeited or expired	(961	)		65.86
Outstanding at the end of the year	25,933		^(a)	$	51.79	5.41	$	577
Exercisable at the end of the year	17,084			$	42.49	4.03	$	538


(a)	Outstanding awards include 1,623 options and 24,310 SARs with weighted average exercise prices of $49.34 and $51.98, respectively.

The weighted-average grant-date fair value of stock options and SARs granted during 2015, 2014 and 2013 was $15.95, $17.28 and $14.67, respectively. The total intrinsic value of stock options and SARs exercised during the years ended December 26, 2015, December 27, 2014 and December 28, 2013, was $186 million, $157 million and $176 million, respectively.

As of December 26, 2015, $89 million of unrecognized compensation cost related to unvested stock options and SARs, which will be reduced by any forfeitures that occur, is expected to be recognized over a remaining weighted-average period of approximately 1.8 years. The total fair value at grant date of awards that vested during 2015, 2014 and 2013 was $48 million, $41 million and $51 million, respectively.

RSUs and PSUs

As of December 26, 2015, there was $8 million of unrecognized compensation cost related to 0.5 million unvested RSUs and PSUs.

Impact on Net Income

The components of share-based compensation expense and the related income tax benefits are shown in the following table:



	2015		2014		2013
Options and SARs	$	50	$	48	$	44
Restricted Stock Units	4		6		6
Performance Share Units	3		1		(1		)
Total Share-based Compensation Expense	$	57	$	55	$	49
Deferred Tax Benefit recognized	$	18	$	17	$	15

EID compensation expense not share-based	$	1	$	8	$	11

Cash received from stock option exercises for 2015, 2014 and 2013, was $12 million, $29 million and $37 million, respectively. Tax benefits realized on our tax returns from tax deductions associated with share-based compensation for 2015, 2014 and 2013 totaled $66 million, $61 million and $65 million, respectively.