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Exhibit
10w.2
LONG TERM INCENTIVE AWARD
AGREEMENT
This Agreement is entered
into as of February __, 2008, between Northwest Natural Gas
Company, an Oregon corporation (the “Company”), and
(“Recipient”).
On February __, 2008, the
Organization and Executive Compensation Committee (the
“Committee”) of the Company’s Board of Directors
(the “Board”) authorized an objectively-determinable
performance-based award (the “TSR Award”) to Recipient
pursuant to Section 8 of the Company’s Long Term
Incentive Plan (the “Plan”) and a subjective
performance-based award (the “Strategic Award”) to
Recipient pursuant to Section 6 of the Plan. Compensation paid
pursuant to the TSR Award is intended to qualify as
performance-based compensation under Section 162(m) of the
Internal Revenue Code of 1986 (the “Code”), while
compensation paid pursuant to the Strategic Award will not so
qualify. Recipient desires to accept the awards subject to the
terms and conditions of this Agreement.
NOW, THEREFORE, the parties
agree as follows:
1. Awards .
Recipient’s “Target Share Amount” for purposes of
this Agreement is
shares.
1.1 TSR Award .
Subject to the terms and conditions of this Agreement, the Company
shall issue or otherwise deliver to the Recipient the number of
shares of Common Stock of the Company (the “TSR Performance
Shares”) determined under this Agreement based on
(a) the performance of the Company’s Common Stock
relative to a peer group of companies during the three-year period
from January 1, 2008 to December 31, 2010 (the
“Award Period”) as described in Section 2 and
(b) Recipient’s continued employment during the Award
Period as described in Section 4. If the Company issues or
otherwise delivers TSR Performance Shares to Recipient, the Company
shall also pay to Recipient the amount of cash determined under
Section 5 (the “TSR Dividend Equivalent Cash
Award”). Recipient’s “TSR Target Share
Amount” for purposes of this Agreement is 75% of the Target
Share Amount.
1.2 Strategic Award .
Subject to the terms and conditions of this Agreement, the Company
shall issue or otherwise deliver to the Recipient the number of
shares of Common Stock of the Company (the “Strategic
Performance Shares” and, together with the TSR Performance
Shares, the “Performance Shares”) determined under this
Agreement based on (a) the Company’s performance against
milestones during the Award Period as determined by the Committee
under Section 3 and (b) Recipient’s continued
employment during the Award Period as described in Section 4.
If the Company issues or otherwise delivers Strategic Performance
Shares to Recipient, the Company shall also pay to Recipient the
amount of cash determined under Section 5 (the
“Strategic Dividend Equivalent Cash Award” and,
together with the TSR Dividend Equivalent Cash Award, the
“Dividend Equivalent Cash Awards”). Recipient’s
“Strategic Target Share Amount” for purposes of this
Agreement is 25% of the Target Share Amount.
2. TSR Performance
Condition .
2.1 Subject to possible
reduction under Section 4, the number of TSR Performance
Shares to be issued or otherwise delivered to Recipient shall be
determined by multiplying the TSR Payout Factor (as defined below)
by the TSR Target Share Amount; provided, however, that no TSR
Performance Shares shall be issued or otherwise delivered unless
the Company’s TSR (as defined below) for the Award Period is
at least 19.1%.
2.2 To determine the
“TSR Payout Factor,” the ten Peer Group Companies (as
defined below) shall be ranked based on their respective
TSR’s from highest to lowest, with the Peer Group Company
with the highest TSR having a TSR Ranking of “1” and
the Peer Group Company with the lowest TSR having a TSR Ranking of
“10.” If the Company’s TSR is equal to the TSR of
any other Peer Group Company, the TSR Payout Factor will be the
percentage in the following table corresponding to the TSR Ranking
of that Peer Group Company.
|
|
|
|
TSR
Ranking |
|
TSR Payout
Factor |
|
| 10 |
|
0 |
% |
| 9 |
|
0 |
% |
| 8 |
|
25 |
% |
| 7 |
|
25 |
% |
| 6 |
|
50 |
% |
| 5 |
|
75 |
% |
| 4 |
|
100 |
% |
| 3 |
|
125 |
% |
| 2 |
|
150 |
% |
| 1 |
|
200 |
% |
If the Company’s TSR is
higher than the TSRs of all Peer Group Companies, the TSR Payout
Factor will be 200%. If the Company’s TSR is not at least as
high as the TSR of the Peer Group Company with the TSR Ranking of
“8,” the TSR Payout Factor will be 0%. If the
Company’s TSR is between the TSRs of any two Peer Group
Companies with TSR Rankings between “1” and
“8,” the TSR Payout Factor shall be interpolated as
follows. The excess of the Company’s TSR over the TSR of the
lower Peer Group Company shall be divided by the excess of the TSR
of the higher Peer Group Company over the TSR of the lower Peer
Group Company. The resulting fraction shall be multiplied by the
difference between the percentages in the above table corresponding
to the TSR Rankings of the two Peer Group Companies. The product of
that calculation shall be added to the percentage in the above
table corresponding to the TSR Ranking of the lower Peer Group
Company, and the resulting sum shall be the TSR Payout
Factor.
2.3 The “Peer Group
Companies” are AGL Resources Inc., Atmos Energy Corporation,
The Laclede Group, Inc., New Jersey Resources Corporation, NICOR
Inc., Piedmont Natural Gas Company, Inc., South Jersey Industries,
Inc., Southwest Gas Corporation, Vectren Corporation and W G L
Holdings, Inc. If prior to the end of the Award Period, the common
stock of any Peer Group Company ceases to be publicly traded for
any reason, then such company shall no longer be considered a Peer
Group Company, and an alternate peer company shall become a Peer
Group Company effective as of the start of the Award Period. The
alternate peer companies, and the order in which they will be added
as Peer Group Companies, if necessary, are: first, NiSource Inc.;
second, Chesapeake Utilities Corporation; and third, National Fuel
Gas Company. If prior to the end of the Award Period, all of the
above alternate peer companies have become Peer Group Companies and
the common stock of yet another Peer Group Company ceases to be
publicly traded for any reason so that there are only nine
remaining
2
Peer Group Companies, for
purposes of Section 2.2 it shall be assumed that there is a
hypothetical Peer Group Company with a TSR Ranking of
“5”; provided, however, that if the Company’s TSR
is between the TSRs of the Peer Group Companies with TSR Rankings
of “4” and “6,” the TSR Payout Factor shall
be interpolated between the payout percentages corresponding to the
TSR Rankings of those two companies. If yet another Peer Group
Company ceases to be publicly traded for any reason so that there
are only eight remaining Peer Group Companies, for purposes of
Section 2.2 it shall be assumed that there are two
hypothetical Peer Group Company with TSR Rankings of
“5” and “6” and, if necessary, the TSR
Payout Factor shall interpolated between the payout percentages
corresponding to the Peer Group Companies with TSR Rankings of
“4” and “7”. Similarly, if additional Peer
Group Companies cease to be publicly traded for any reason,
additional hypothetical Peer Group Companies shall be assumed to
exist with TSR Rankings of “4”, then “7”,
then “3”, then “9”, and then
“2”.
2.4 The “TSR” for
the Company and each Peer Group Company shall be calculated by
(a) assuming that $100 is invested in the common stock of the
company at a price equal to the average of the closing market
prices of the stock for the period from October 1, 2007 to
December 31, 2007, (b) assuming that for each dividend
paid on the stock during the Award Period, the amount equal to the
dividend paid on the assumed number of shares held is reinvested in
additional shares at a price equal to the closing market price of
the stock on the ex-dividend date for the dividend, and
(c) determining the final dollar value of the total assumed
number of shares based on the average of the closing market prices
of the stock for the period from October 1, 2010 to
December 31, 2010. The “TSR” shall then equal the
amount determined by subtracting $100 from the foregoing final
dollar value, dividing the result by 100 and expressing the
resulting fraction as a percentage.
2.5 If during the Award
Period any Peer Group Company enters into an agreement pursuant to
which all or substantially all of the stock or assets of the Peer
Group Company will be acquired by a third party (a “Signed
Acquisition”), and if the Signed Acquisition is not completed
so that such company remains a Peer Group Company at the end of the
Award Period, then the calculation of the TSR for that Peer Group
Company shall be modified as provided in this Section 2.5. A
“Partial Period TSR” for each Peer Group Company shall
be calculated in the same manner as TSR is calculated under
Section 2.4, except that for this purpose the Award Period
shall be deemed to have ended on the day before the date of
announcement of the Signed Acquisition and the final dollar value
under clause (c) of Section 2.4 for each Peer Group
Company shall be determined based on the average of the closing
market prices of each stock for the three-month period ending on
the day before such announcement date. The TSR of the Peer Group
Company subject to the Signed Acquisition shall then be equal to
its Partial Period TSR multiplied by the Average Change Factor (as
defined below). The “Average Change Factor” shall be a
fraction, the numerator of which is the average of the TSRs of all
Peer Group Companies that are not subject to a Signed Acquisition,
and the denominator of which is the average of the Partial Period
TSRs of those Peer Group Companies. If a Signed Acquisition of a
Peer Group Company is terminated (other than in connection with the
execution of another Signed Acquisition) before the end of the
Award Period, then the above modification to the calculation of TSR
for that Peer Group Company shall not apply, and the TSR for that
Peer Group Company shall be cal
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