EQUITY-BASED COMPENSATION

12 Months Ended

Feb. 26, 2022

Share-based Payment Arrangement [Abstract]

EQUITY-BASED COMPENSATION The Company maintains the Albertsons Companies, Inc. Restricted Stock Unit Plan (the "Restricted Stock Unit Plan"). Under the Restricted Stock Unit Plan, subsequent to the IPO, 43.6 million shares of Class A common stock have been authorized for issuance as equity awards. As of February 26, 2022, 37.7 million shares of Class A common stock remained available for future awards.

Under the Restricted Stock Unit Plan, the Company recognizes equity-based compensation expense for RSUs and RSAs granted to employees and non-employee directors. Upon vesting, RSUs and RSAs will be settled in shares of the Company's Class A common stock. RSUs generally vest over three years from the grant date, based on a service period, or upon a combination of both a service period and achievement of certain performance-based thresholds, and RSAs generally vest over five years from the grant date, with 50% based solely on a service period and 50% upon a service period and achievement of certain performance-based thresholds. For performance-based RSUs and RSAs granted in fiscal 2021, the number of shares of the Company's Class A common stock to be received at vesting can be adjusted within a predetermined range based on the Company's actual performance for fiscal 2021 relative to the fiscal 2021 performance target.

Equity-based compensation expense recognized in the Consolidated Statements of Operations, net of forfeitures, was as follows (in millions):


	Fiscal 2021		Fiscal 2020		Fiscal 2019
RSUs	$	93.2	$	53.5	$	28.9
RSAs	8.0		5.5		3.9
Total equity-based compensation expense	$	101.2	$	59.0	$	32.8
Total related tax benefit	$	23.9	$	13.7	$	7.5

During fiscal 2021, the Company issued 4.8 million RSUs to its employees and directors, of which 3.5 million shares were granted for accounting purposes. The 3.5 million issued and granted awards consist of 2.9 million RSUs that have solely time-based vesting and 0.6 million performance-based RSUs that were granted upon the establishment of the fiscal 2021 performance target and that would vest upon both the achievement of such performance target and continued service through the vesting period. Additionally, 2.2 million previously issued performance-based RSUs and RSAs were granted in fiscal 2021 upon the establishment of the fiscal 2021 annual performance target and that would vest upon both the achievement of such performance target and continued service through the vesting period. The 5.7 million RSUs and RSAs granted in fiscal 2021 have an aggregate grant date value of $113.2 million. The aggregate grant date value of RSUs and RSAs granted was $94.5 million and $20.0 million in fiscal 2020 and fiscal 2019, respectively.

The following summarizes the activity of RSUs and RSAs during fiscal 2021:


	Time-Based			Performance-Based
	Number of shares (in millions)	Weighted average grant date fair value		Number of shares (in millions)	Weighted average grant date fair value
Unvested, February 27, 2021	6.0	$	11.95	2.2	$	14.39

Granted	2.9	21.33		2.8	17.95
Vested	(3.8)	12.68		(0.5)	17.59
Forfeited or cancelled	(0.3)	13.72		—	—
Unvested, February 26, 2022	4.8	$	16.98	4.5	$	16.26

During fiscal 2021, fiscal 2020 and fiscal 2019, the aggregate fair value of RSUs and RSAs that vested was $120.9 million, $54.3 million and $29.3 million, respectively. The number of RSUs and RSAs vested includes shares of common stock that the Company withheld on behalf of employees to satisfy statutory tax withholding requirements.

As of February 26, 2022, the Company had $94.4 million of unrecognized compensation cost related to 8.3 million unvested granted RSUs. That cost is expected to be recognized over a weighted average period of 1.7 years. As of

February 26, 2022, the Company had $3.6 million of unrecognized costs related to 1.0 million unvested granted RSAs. That cost is expected to be recognized over a weighted average period of 2.2 years.

Upon the establishment of the annual performance target for fiscal 2022 and fiscal 2023, the remaining 1.6 million issued performance-based RSUs and 0.3 million performance-based RSAs will be granted for accounting purposes, as applicable.