GRAFTECH INTERNATIONAL LTD. OMNIBUS EQUITY INCENTIVE PLAN RESTRICTED STOCK UNIT AGREEMENT
Exhibit 10.1
THIS AGREEMENT, made as of [●], 2019 between GrafTech International Ltd. (“GrafTech”) and [●] (the “Participant”).
WHEREAS, GrafTech has adopted the GrafTech International Ltd. Omnibus Equity Incentive Plan (the “Plan”);
WHEREAS, Section 7 of the Plan provides for the grant to Participants of equity-based or equity-related awards, including restricted stock units (“RSUs”).
NOW, THEREFORE, in consideration of the premises and the mutual covenants hereinafter set forth, the parties hereto hereby agree as follows:
1.Grant of RSUs. Pursuant to, and subject to, the terms and conditions set forth herein and in the Plan, GrafTech hereby grants to the Participant [●] RSUs. Each RSU represents a conditional right to receive one share of Common Stock.
2. Grant Date. The grant date of the RSUs hereby granted is [●], 2019 (“Grant Date”).
3. Vesting. Subject to the provisions of Section 5 hereof and to the Participant’s continued Employment with the Company through each applicable date, the RSUs shall vest in accordance with the following schedule (each such date, a “Vesting Date”):
(a) | [ ] RSUs shall vest on the first anniversary of the Grant Date; |
(b) | [ ] RSUs shall vest on the second anniversary of the Grant Date; |
(c) | [ ] RSUs shall vest on the third anniversary of the Grant Date; |
(d) | [ ] RSUs shall vest on the fourth anniversary of the Grant Date; and |
(e) | [ ] RSUs shall vest on the fifth anniversary of the Grant Date; |
4. Dividend Equivalents. At the time GrafTech delivers shares of Common Stock in respect of the Participant’s vested RSUs under Section 6, GrafTech will also deliver to the Participant a number of shares of Common Stock equal to (i) the total cash dividends the Participant would have received had such number of shares of Common Stock (in respect of the then vested RSUs) been held from the Grant Date through the date of the Participant’s receipt of such shares of Common Stock in settlement of vested RSUs divided by (ii) the Fair Market Value of a share of Common Stock on the applicable Vesting Date, rounded down to the nearest whole share. No interest will accrue on such dividend equivalents. No dividend equivalent amounts will be delivered in respect of unvested or forfeited RSUs.
5. Change in Control. In the event of a Change in Control, any then-outstanding unvested RSUs shall immediately vest in full as of the date of such Change in Control (even in the event the Participant’s Employment is terminated on the date of such Change in Control). For purposes of this Agreement, a “Change in Control” shall occur upon (i) Brookfield Asset Management Inc. and any affiliates thereof (the “Majority Stockholder”) ceasing to own stock of GrafTech that constitutes at least thirty percent (30%) of the total fair market value or total Voting Power of the stock of GrafTech or (ii) any one person, or more than one person acting as a group (as defined under Treasury Regulation § 1.409A-3(i)(5)(v)(B)) other than GrafTech, the Majority Stockholder or any employee benefit plan sponsored by GrafTech acquires ownership of stock of GrafTech that, together with stock held by such person or group, constitutes one hundred percent (100%) of the total fair market value or total Voting Power of the stock of GrafTech.
6. Delivery of Common Stock. Subject to Section 10 hereof, as soon as practicable following the applicable Vesting Date (or, if applicable, the date of a Change in Control for any RSUs vesting pursuant to Section 5 hereof) but in any event no later than the end of the calendar year in which such Vesting Date or Change in Control occurs, as applicable, GrafTech shall deliver one share of Common Stock to the Participant in respect of each vested RSU and shares, if any, in respect of such vested RSUs deliverable under Section 5 hereof; provided that to the extent required to avoid accelerated taxation and tax penalties under Section 409A of the Code, such shares (and cash, if any) will be delivered six months and one day after the Participant’s separation from service (or the Participant’s death, if earlier).
7. Forfeiture. Other than as set forth in Section 5 of this Agreement, any unvested RSUs shall expire and be forfeited upon the termination of Participant’s Employment for any reason without any consideration and the Participant shall have no further rights thereto.
8. Transferability. No RSUs may be sold, pledged, hypothecated, or otherwise encumbered or subject to any lien, obligation, or liability of the Participant to any party (other than GrafTech), or assigned or transferred by such Participant, but immediately upon such purported sale, assignment, transfer, pledge, hypothecation or other disposal of any RSU will be forfeited by the Participant and all of the Participant’s rights to such RSU shall immediately terminate without any payment or consideration from GrafTech.
9. Incorporation of Plan. All terms, conditions and restrictions of the Plan are incorporated herein and made part hereof as if stated herein. If there is any conflict between the terms and conditions of the Plan and this Agreement, the terms and conditions of the Plan shall govern (unless otherwise stated therein). All capitalized terms used and not defined herein shall have the meaning given to such terms in the Plan.
10. Taxes. To the extent required by applicable federal, state, local or foreign law, the Participant shall make arrangements satisfactory to GrafTech for the satisfaction of any withholding tax obligations that arise with respect to the vesting of the RSUs in accordance with Section 13 of the Plan. GrafTech shall not be required to deliver shares of Common Stock to the Participant until it determines such obligations are satisfied.
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11. Construction of Agreement. Any provision of this Agreement (or portion thereof) which is deemed invalid, illegal or unenforceable in any jurisdiction shall, as to that jurisdiction and subject to this section, be ineffective to the extent of such invalidity, illegality or unenforceability, without affecting in any way the remaining provisions thereof in such jurisdiction or rendering that or any other provisions of this Agreement invalid, illegal, or unenforceable in any other jurisdiction. If any covenant should be deemed invalid, illegal or unenforceable because its scope is considered excessive, such covenant shall be modified so that the scope of the covenant is reduced only to the minimum extent necessary to render the modified covenant valid, legal and enforceable. No waiver of any provision or violation of this Agreement by GrafTech shall be implied by GrafTech’s forbearance or failure to take action. No provision of this Agreement shall be given effect to the extent that such provision would cause any tax to become due under Section 409A of the Code.
12. Delays or Omissions. No delay or omission to exercise any right, power or remedy accruing to any party hereto upon any breach or default of any party under this Agreement, shall impair any such right, power or remedy of such party nor shall it be construed to be a waiver of any such breach or default, or an acquiescence therein, or of or in any similar breach or default thereafter occurring nor shall any waiver of any single breach or default be deemed a waiver of any other breach or default theretofore or thereafter occurring. Any waiver, permit, consent or approval of any kind or character on the part of any party of any breach or default under this Agreement, or any waiver on the part of any party or any provisions or conditions of this Agreement, shall be in writing and shall be effective only to the extent specifically set forth in such writing.
13. No Special Employment Rights; No Right to Award. Nothing contained in the Plan or any Stock Incentive Award shall confer upon any Participant any right with respect to the continuation of his Employment with the Company or interfere in any way with the right of the Company at any time to terminate such Employment or to increase or decrease the compensation of the Participant from the rate in existence at the time of the grant of the RSUs. The rights or opportunity granted to the Participant on the making of a Stock Incentive Award shall not give the Participant any rights or additional rights to compensation or damages in consequence of either: (i) the Participant giving or receiving notice of termination of his or her office or Employment; (ii) the loss or termination of his or her office or Employment with the Company for any reason whatsoever; or (iii) whether or not the termination (and/or giving of notice) is ultimately held to be wrongful or unfair.
14. Stockholder’s Rights. The Participant shall have no rights as a stockholder of GrafTech with respect to any shares of Common Stock in respect of the RSUs awarded under this Agreement until the date of issuance to the Participant of a certificate or other evidence of ownership representing such shares of Common Stock in settlement thereof. For purposes of clarification, the Participant shall not have any voting or dividend rights with respect to the shares of Common Stock underlying the RSUs prior to settlement.
15. Data Privacy. By participating in the Plan each Participant consents to the collection, holding, processing and transfer of data relating to the Participant and, in particular, to
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the processing of any sensitive personal data by the Company for all purposes connected with the operation of the Plan, including, but not limited to: (i) holding and maintaining details of the Participant and his or her participation in the Plan; (ii) transferring data relating to the Participant and his or her participation in the Plan to the Company registrars or brokers, the plan administrator or any other relevant professional advisers or service providers to the Company; (iii) disclosing details of the Participant and his or her participation in the Plan to a bona fide prospective purchaser of the Company (or the prospective purchaser's advisers), and (iv) with respect to Participants Employed in the European Economic Area, transferring data relating to the Participant and his or her participation in the Plan under (i) to (iii) above to a person who is resident in a country or territory outside the European Economic Area that may not provide the same statutory protection for the data as countries within the European Economic Area.
16. Integration. This Agreement, and the other documents referred to herein or delivered pursuant hereto which form a part hereof contain the entire understanding of the parties with respect to its subject matter. There are no restrictions, agreements, promises, representations, warranties, covenants or undertakings with respect to the subject matter hereof other than those expressly set forth herein and in the Plan. This Agreement, including without limitation the Plan, supersedes all prior agreements and understandings between the parties with respect to its subject matter.
17. Clawback Policies. Notwithstanding anything in the Plan to the contrary, GrafTech will be entitled, to the extent permitted or required by applicable law, Company policy and/or the requirements of an exchange on which GrafTech’s shares of Common Stock are listed for trading, in each case, as in effect from time to time, to recoup compensation of whatever kind paid by GrafTech or any of its affiliates at any time to a Participant under the Plan and the Participant, by accepting this award of RSUs pursuant to the Plan and this Agreement, agrees to comply with any Company request or demand for such recoupment. In addition, a Participant’s rights, payments, gains and benefits with respect to a Stock Incentive Award (whether granted hereunder or under any prior Award Agreement) shall be subject to, in the sole and good faith judgment of the Committee, reduction, cancellation, forfeiture or recoupment if the Participant engages in Detrimental Conduct (as defined below); provided, that any change to the terms of the Stock Incentive Awards shall be effected in a way that causes the Stock Incentive Awards to be excluded from the application of, or to comply with, Section 409A of the Code. For the purposes of this Agreement, “Detrimental Conduct” means activities which have been, are or would reasonably be expected to be detrimental to the interests of the Company, as determined in the sole and good faith judgment of the Committee. Such activities include unlawful conduct under securities, antitrust, tax or other laws, improper disclosure or use of confidential or proprietary information or trade secrets, competition with or improper taking of a corporate opportunity of any business of the Company, failure to cooperate in any investigation or legal proceeding, or misappropriation of property.
18. Policy Against Xxxxxxx Xxxxxxx. By accepting the RSUs, the Participant acknowledges that the Participant is bound by all the terms and conditions of GrafTech’s xxxxxxx xxxxxxx policy as may be in effect from time to time.
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19. 280G Provisions. Notwithstanding any other provision of this Agreement or any other plan, arrangement, or agreement to the contrary, if any of the payments or benefits provided or to be provided by the Company to the Participant or for the Participant’s benefit pursuant to the terms of this Agreement or otherwise (“Covered Payments”) constitute parachute payments (“Parachute Payments”) within the meaning of Section 280G of the Code and would, but for this Section 19 subject to the excise tax imposed under Section 4999 of the Code (or any successor provision thereto) or any similar tax imposed by state or local law or any interest or penalties with respect to such taxes (collectively, the “Excise Tax”), then the Covered Payments shall be payable either (i) in full or (ii) after reduction to the minimum extent necessary to ensure that no portion of the Covered Payments is subject to the Excise Tax, whichever of the foregoing (i) or (ii) results in the Participant’s receipt on an after-tax basis of the greatest amount of benefits after taking into account the applicable federal, state, local and foreign income, employment and excise taxes (including the Excise Tax), notwithstanding that all or some portion of such benefits may be taxable under the Excise Tax.
Unless the Company and the Participant otherwise agree in writing, any determination required under this Section 19 shall be made in writing in good faith by a nationally recognized accounting firm (the “Accountants”). In the event of a reduction in Covered Payments hereunder, the reduction of the total payments shall apply as follows, unless otherwise agreed in writing and such agreement is in compliance with Section 409A of the Code: (i) first, any cash severance payments due shall be reduced and (ii) second, any acceleration of vesting of any equity shall be deferred with the tranche that would vest last (without any such acceleration) first deferred. For purposes of making the calculations required by this Section 19, the Accountants may make reasonable assumptions and approximations concerning applicable taxes and may rely on reasonable, good faith interpretations concerning the application of the Code, and other applicable legal authority. The Company and the Participant shall furnish to the Accountants such information and documents as the Accountants may reasonably request in order to make a determination under this Section 19. The Company shall bear all costs the Accountants may reasonably incur in connection with any calculations contemplated by this Section 19.
If notwithstanding any reduction described in this Section 19, the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) determines that the Participant is liable for the Excise Tax as a result of the receipt of the Covered Payments, then the Participant shall be obligated to pay back to the Company, within thirty (30) days after a final IRS determination or in the event that the Participant challenges the final IRS determination, a final judicial determination a portion of such amounts equal to the “Repayment Amount.” The Repayment Amount shall be the smallest such amount, if any, as shall be required to be paid to the Company so that the Participant’s net after-tax proceeds with respect to any payment of the Covered Payments (after taking into account the payment of the Excise Tax and all other applicable taxes imposed on the Covered Payments) shall be maximized. The Repayment Amount with respect to the payment of Covered Payments shall be zero if a Repayment Amount of more than zero would not result in the Participant’s net after-tax proceeds with respect to the payment of the Covered Payments being maximized. If the Excise Tax is not eliminated pursuant to this paragraph, the Participant shall pay the Excise Tax. Notwithstanding any other provision of this Section 19, if (i) there is a
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reduction in the payment of Covered Payments as described in this Section 19, (ii) the IRS later determines that the Participant is liable for the Excise Tax, the payment of which would result in the maximization of the Participant’s net after-tax proceeds (calculated as if the Covered Payments had not previously been reduced), and (iii) the Participant pays the Excise Tax, then the Company shall pay to the Participant those Covered Payments which were reduced pursuant to this Section 19 contemporaneously or as soon as administratively possible after the Participant pays the Excise Tax so that the Participant’s net after-tax proceeds with respect to the payment of Covered Payments are maximized.
20. Counterparts. This Agreement may be executed in two or more counterparts, each of which shall be deemed an original, but all of which shall constitute one and the same instrument.
21. Governing Law. This Agreement shall be governed by and construed and enforced in accordance with the laws of the State of Delaware without regard to the provisions governing conflict of laws.
22. Participant Acknowledgment. The Participant hereby acknowledges receipt of a copy of the Plan. The Participant hereby acknowledges that all decisions, determinations and interpretations of the Committee in respect of the Plan and this Agreement shall be final and conclusive. The Participant acknowledges that there may be adverse tax consequences upon vesting of the RSUs or disposition of the underlying shares of Common Stock and that the Participant should consult a tax advisor prior to such vesting or disposition.
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IN WITNESS WHEREOF, GrafTech has caused this Agreement to be duly executed by its duly authorized officer and said Participant has hereunto signed this Agreement on his or her own behalf, thereby representing that the Participant has carefully read and understands this Agreement and the Plan as of the day and year first written above.
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By:
Title:
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Participant:
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