Quarterly report pursuant to Section 13 or 15(d)

SHARE BASED COMPENSATION

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SHARE BASED COMPENSATION
 3 Months Ended
Mar. 31, 2013
Disclosure of Compensation Related Costs, Share-based Payments [Abstract]  
SHARE BASED COMPENSATION
SHARE-BASED COMPENSATION
Transactions in connection with the Company’s share-based compensation plans during the three months ended March 31, 2013 were as follows:
Director stock awards granted and outstanding
45,510

Restricted stock awards granted and outstanding
188,200

Stock option activities:
 
Outstanding as of December 31, 2012
—

Converted stock options
169,058

Granted
185,000

Exercised
(6,346
)
Forfeited
—

Expired
—

Outstanding as of March 31, 2013
347,712


Effective January 14, 2013, the Company adopted the Era Group Inc. 2012 Incentive Plan (“2012 Plan”) under which a maximum of 4,000,000 shares of common stock, par value $0.01 per share, are reserved. Awards granted under the 2012 Plan may be in the form of stock options, stock appreciation rights, shares of restricted stock, other stock-based awards (payable in cash or common stock) or performance awards, or any combination thereof, and may be made to outside directors, employees or consultants. As of March 31, 2013, 3,412,232 shares remained available for grant under the 2012 Plan.
Total stock-based compensation expense, which includes stock options and restricted stock, totaled $0.3 million for the three months ended March 31, 2013. A portion of the restricted stock awards are performance based. The Company has assessed the probability of meeting the criteria and has recorded the appropriate expense.
During the three months ended March 31, 2013, the Company awarded 233,710 shares of restricted stock at an average grant date fair value of $20.48 per share, granted 185,000 stock options and converted 37,900 options to purchase SEACOR common stock held by Era Group employees and directors prior to the Spin-off into 169,058 options to purchase Era Group common stock. The fair value used for the converted stock options was evaluated before and after the Spin-off and there was no change. The following table shows the assumptions used to compute the stock-based compensation expense for stock options granted during the three months ended March 31, 2013:
Risk free interest rate
 
0.79
%
Expected life (years)
 
5

Volatility
 
50
%
Dividend yield
 
—
%
Weighted average exercise price of options granted
 
$18.28 per option

Weighted average grant-date fair value of options granted
 
$7.58 per option