Fair Value of Financial Instruments

3 Months Ended

Mar. 31, 2016

Fair value is defined as the price that would be received to sell an asset or paid to transfer a liability in a transaction between market participants as of the measurement date. Fair value is measured using the fair value hierarchy and related valuation methodologies as defined in the authoritative literature. This guidance provides a fair value framework that requires the categorization of assets and liabilities into three levels based upon the assumptions (inputs) used to price the assets or liabilities. Level 1 provides the most reliable measure of fair value, whereas Level 3 generally requires significant management judgment.

The three levels are defined as follows:


Level 1 -	Quoted prices in active markets for identical assets and liabilities.


Level 2 -	Quoted prices for similar instruments in active markets, quoted prices for identical or similar instruments in markets that are not active and model-derived valuations, in which all significant inputs are observable in active markets.


Level 3 -	Significant unobservable inputs reflecting management's own assumptions about the inputs used in pricing the asset or liability.

The Company’s financial instruments consist of debt, interest rate swaps, accounts receivable, and accounts payable. The carrying amount of these financial instruments approximated their fair value. The Company has one Level 2 fair value measurement, which relates to the Company’s interest rate swap, and is immaterial to the financial statements. The Company utilized interest rate swap contracts to manage its targeted mix of fixed and floating rate debt, and these swaps are valued using observable benchmark rates at commonly quoted intervals for the full term of the swaps (market approach). These interest rate swaps are discussed in detail in Note 8.

There were no non-recurring fair value measurements for the three months ended March 31, 2016.

- Definition

The entire disclosure for the fair value of financial instruments (as defined), including financial assets and financial liabilities (collectively, as defined), and the measurements of those instruments as well as disclosures related to the fair value of non-financial assets and liabilities. Such disclosures about the financial instruments, assets, and liabilities would include: (1) the fair value of the required items together with their carrying amounts (as appropriate); (2) for items for which it is not practicable to estimate fair value, disclosure would include: (a) information pertinent to estimating fair value (including, carrying amount, effective interest rate, and maturity, and (b) the reasons why it is not practicable to estimate fair value; (3) significant concentrations of credit risk including: (a) information about the activity, region, or economic characteristics identifying a concentration, (b) the maximum amount of loss the entity is exposed to based on the gross fair value of the related item, (c) policy for requiring collateral or other security and information as to accessing such collateral or security, and (d) the nature and brief description of such collateral or security; (4) quantitative information about market risks and how such risks are managed; (5) for items measured on both a recurring and nonrecurring basis information regarding the inputs used to develop the fair value measurement; and (6) for items presented in the financial statement for which fair value measurement is elected: (a) information necessary to understand the reasons for the election, (b) discussion of the effect of fair value changes on earnings, (c) a description of [similar groups] items for which the election is made and the relation thereof to the balance sheet, the aggregate carrying value of items included in the balance sheet that are not eligible for the election; (7) all other required (as defined) and desired information.

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