Related-Party Transactions

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2017

16. RELATED-PARTY TRANSACTIONS

Parent

Group entered into a $250,000 thousand long term promissory note agreement with Holdings as of December 31, 2014. The note will mature on December 31, 2023 and has an interest rate of 1.72% that is payable annually. This transaction is presented as a Note Receivable – Affiliated in the Consolidated Balance Sheets of Holdings. Interest income in the amount of $4,300 thousand was recorded by Holdings for the year ended December 31, 2017 and December 31, 2016, respectively.

Group's Board of Directors approved an amended share repurchase program authorizing Group and/or its subsidiary Holdings to purchase Group's common shares through open market transactions, privately negotiated transactions or both. The table below represents the amendments to the share repurchase program for the common shares approved for repurchase.

		Common Shares
		Authorized for
Amendment Date		Repurchase
(Dollars in thousands)

09/21/2004		5,000,000
07/21/2008		5,000,000
02/24/2010		5,000,000
02/22/2012		5,000,000
05/15/2013		5,000,000
11/19/2014		5,000,000
		30,000,000

Holdings had purchased and held 9,719,971 Common Shares of Group, which were purchased in the open market between February 2007 and March 2011.

In December, 2015, Holdings transferred the 9,719,971 Common Shares of Group, which it held as other invested assets, at fair value, valued at $1,773,214 thousand, to Preferred Holdings, an affiliated entity and subsidiary of Group, in exchange for 1,773.214 preferred shares of Preferred Holdings with a $1,000 thousand par value and 1.75% annual dividend rate. After the exchange, Holdings no longer holds any shares or has any ownership interest in Group.

Holdings reported both its Parent shares and preferred shares in Preferred Holdings, as other invested assets, fair value, in the consolidated balance sheets with changes in fair value re-measurement recorded in net realized capital gains (losses) in the consolidated statements of operations and comprehensive income (loss). The following table presents the dividends received on the preferred shares of Preferred Holdings and on the Parent shares that are reported as net investment income in the consolidated statements of operations and comprehensive income (loss) for the period indicated.


	Years Ended December 31,
(Dollars in thousands)	2017		2016		2015
Dividends received on Parent shares	$	-	$	-	$	38,880
Dividends received on preferred stock of affiliate		31,032		31,032		-

Affiliated Companies

Everest Global Services, Inc. ("Global Services"), an affiliate of Holdings, provides centralized management and home office services, through a management agreement, to Holdings and other affiliated companies within Holdings' consolidated structure. Services provided by Everest Global include executive managerial services, legal services, actuarial services, accounting services, information technology services and others.

The following table presents the expenses incurred by Holdings from services provided by Everest Global for the periods indicated.



	Years Ended December 31,
(Dollars in thousands)	2017		2016		2015
Expenses incurred	$	91,927	$	84,823	$	81,122