Goodwill

9 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2019

Goodwill and Intangible Assets Disclosure [Abstract]

The changes in the carrying amount of goodwill by reportable segment for the nine months ended September 30, 2019 are as follows:



(in thousands)	Trade		Plant Nutrient		Rail		Total
Balance as of January 1, 2019	$	1,171	$	686	$	4,167	$	6,024
Acquisitions (a)	129,848		—		—		129,848
Balance as of September 30, 2019	$	131,019	$	686	$	4,167	$	135,872

(a) Acquisitions represent the LTG acquisition's preliminary goodwill allocation.

Although substantially all of the Company’s goodwill as of September 30, 2019 resulted from the current year acquisition of LTG and is still preliminary, as part of the Company's on-going assessment of goodwill at September 30, 2019, management determined that a triggering event occurred due to the Company's market capitalization being less than the carrying value, resulting from the significant decline in the Company's share price during the quarter. Thus, an interim impairment test was performed over the Company's goodwill as well as its other intangible and long-lived assets. Based on the results of the impairment test, none of the Company's reportable segments recorded an impairment charge.

When performing our test for impairment, we measured each reporting unit's fair value using a combination of income and market approaches.

The income approach calculates the fair value of the reporting unit based on a discounted cash flow analysis, incorporating the weighted average cost of capital of a hypothetical third-party buyer. Significant estimates in the income approach include the following: discount rate; expected financial outlook and profitability of the reporting unit's business (all Level 3 inputs in the fair value hierarchy). Discount rates use the weighted average cost of capital for companies within our peer group, adjusted for specific company risk premium factors.

The market approach uses the "Guideline Company" method, which calculates the fair value of the reporting unit based on a comparison of the reporting unit to comparable publicly traded companies. Significant estimates in the market approach model include identifying similar companies with comparable business factors such as size, growth, profitability, risk and return on investment, assessing comparable multiples, as well as consideration of control premiums. The blended approach assigns an equal weighting to each approach. The blended fair value of both approaches is then compared to the carrying value, and to the extent that fair value exceeds the carrying value, no impairment exists. However, to the extent the carrying value exceeds the fair value, an impairment is recorded.

While two reporting units within the Trade group have fair value exceeding their carrying values by less than 10%, substantially all the goodwill relates to the recent LTG acquisition. Due to similar assumptions used to calculate the fair value for this test and those used in the initial purchase price allocation, the narrow cushions are consistent with expectations. However, as the fair value is highly sensitive to changes in assumptions, including interest rates and outlook for future volume and margins, general trends in the business and/or macro-economic factors could cause the estimated fair value of the reporting units to fall below their carrying values.