7.	Share-Based Compensation Plan

2016 Value Sharing Equity Program

On February 9, 2016, the Company adopted the 2016 Value Sharing Equity Program (the “2016 VSEP”), and performance awards were granted to certain officers, effective February 9, 2016. Awards made under the 2016 VSEP, if earned, may result in the granting of common shares of DDR and time-vested restricted stock units (“RSUs”) to participants on future measurement dates based on a performance period beginning on February 9, 2016, and ending on December 31, 2018 (the “Performance Period”). As a result, in general, the total compensation available to participants under the 2016 VSEP, if any, will be fully earned only after approximately seven years (the Performance Period and the final four-year time-based vesting period for RSUs).

The 2016 VSEP is designed to allow DDR to reward participants for contributing to its achieving financial performance and allow such participants to share in “Value Created” (as defined below), based upon increases in DDR’s adjusted market capitalization over its initial market capitalization using a starting share price of $17.41 per share (the “Starting Share Price”), over pre-established periods of time. Under the 2016 VSEP, participants are granted performance-based awards which, if earned, are settled 20% in DDR common shares, and 80% in RSUs that are generally subject to time-based vesting requirements for a period of four years.

Pursuant to the award terms, on five specified measurement dates (the first date occurring on February 23, 2017, with subsequent measurement dates occurring through December 31, 2018), DDR will measure the “Value Created” during the period between the start of the 2016 VSEP and the applicable measurement date. Value Created is measured for each period for the performance awards as the increase in DDR’s market capitalization on the applicable measurement date (i.e., the product of DDR’s five-day trailing average share price as of each measurement date (price-only appreciation, not total shareholder return) and the number of shares outstanding as of the measurement date), as adjusted for equity issuances and/or equity repurchases, over DDR’s initial market capitalization at the start of the 2016 VSEP utilizing the Starting Share Price. The ending share price used for purposes of determining Value Created for the performance awards during any measurement period is capped at $25.35 (“Maximum Ending Share Price”). Because DDR’s initial market capitalization is based on the Starting Share Price, there are no performance awards earned until DDR’s share price exceeds $17.41.

Each participant has been assigned a “percentage share” of the Value Created for the performance awards, and the aggregate percentage share for all participants for the performance awards is 1.4909% if the ending share price for the applicable measurement period is $19.58 or lower. In addition, each participant’s aggregate total share of Value Created for the performance awards is capped at an individual maximum dollar limit. After the first measurement date, each participant may earn “performance award shares” (settled as discussed below) with an aggregate value equal to two-sixths of the participant’s percentage share of the Value Created for this award. After each of the next three measurement dates, each participant may earn performance award shares with an aggregate value equal to three-sixths, then four-sixths and then five-sixths, respectively, of the participant’s percentage share of the Value Created for this award. After the final measurement date (or, if earlier, upon a change in control, as defined in the 2016 VSEP), each participant may earn performance award shares with an aggregate value equal to the participant’s full percentage share of the Value Created. In addition, for each measurement date, the number of performance award shares earned by a participant will be reduced by the number of performance award shares previously earned by the participant for prior measurement periods.

Unless otherwise determined by DDR, the DDR common shares earned under the performance awards will generally be subject to additional service-based restrictions that are expected to vest in 20% annual increments beginning on the date of grant and on each of the first four anniversaries of the date of grant. After becoming vested, RSUs will be paid in the form of one common share for each such vested RSU. The fair value of the 2016 VSEP grants was estimated on the date of grant using a Monte Carlo approach model based on the following assumptions:

	Range
Risk-free interest rate		0.8%
Weighted-average dividend yield		5.0%
Expected life	3 years
Expected volatility	17%–19%

As of September 30, 2016, total unrecognized compensation related to the market metric component associated with the awards granted under the 2016 VSEP was approximately $3.6 million and is expected to be recognized over a weighted-average 6.25-year term, which includes the performance-based and time-based vesting periods.