Share-Based Compensation and Other Benefit Plans

3 Months Ended

Mar. 31, 2017

Disclosure of Compensation Related Costs, Share-based Payments [Abstract]

Share-Based Compensation and Other Benefit Plans

Share-Based Compensation and Other Benefit Plans

Share-Based Compensation

We recognize share-based compensation expense related to our share-based compensation plans as a component of “General and administrative” expense in our Condensed Consolidated Statements of Operations.

In the Predecessor periods in 2016 we had outstanding equity-classified awards in the form of stock options, restricted stock units and deferred stock units. All outstanding equity-classified share-based compensation awards were canceled in connection with our emergence from bankruptcy. We reserved 749,600 shares of Successor common Stock for issuance under the Penn Virginia Corporation Management Incentive Plan for future share-based compensation awards. A total of 254,397 shares of time-vested restricted stock units (“RSUs”) and 62,675 performance restricted stock units (“PRSUs”) had been granted as of March 31, 2017.

The following table summarizes our share-based compensation expense (benefit) recognized for the periods presented:

	Successor		Predecessor
	Three Months		Three Months
	Ended		Ended
	March 31, 2017		March 31, 2016
Equity-classified awards	$	846	$	(602	)
Liability-classified awards	—		(7		)
	$	846	$	(609	)

In January 2017, we granted 146,834 RSUs to certain employees with a grant-date fair value of $51.71 per RSU. The RSUs are being charged to expense on a straight-line basis over five years. In January 2017, we also granted 62,675 PRSUs to members of our senior management. The PRSUs were issued collectively in three separate tranches with individual three-year performance periods beginning in January 2017, 2018 and 2019, respectively. Vesting of the PRSUs can range from zero to 200 percent of the original grant based on the performance of our common stock relative to an industry index. The grant date fair values of the individual tranches were $65.28 for the first performance period tranche and $61.74 for each of the second and third performance period tranches. Due to their market condition, the PRSUs are being charged to expense using graded vesting over five years. The fair value of each PRSU award was estimated on the January 26, 2017 date of grant using a Monte Carlo simulation. Expected volatilities were based on historical volatilities. A risk-free rate of interest of 1.49% was utilized which is equivalent to the yield, as of the measurement date, of the zero-coupon U.S. Treasury bill commensurate with the longest remaining performance measurement period for each tranche. We assumed no payment of dividends during the performance periods.

Other Benefit Plans

We maintain the Penn Virginia Corporation and Affiliated Companies Employees 401(k) Plan (the “401(k) Plan”), a defined contribution plan, which covers substantially all of our employees. We recognized $0.1 million and $0.2 million of expense attributable to the 401(k) Plan for the three months endedMarch 31, 2017 and 2016, respectively.

We maintain unqualified legacy defined benefit pension and defined benefit postretirement plans that cover a limited number of former employees, all of whom retired prior to 2000. The combined expense recognized with respect to these plans was less than $0.1 million for each of the three months endedMarch 31, 2017 and 2016.