Derivative Instruments and Hedging Activity

3 Months Ended

Mar. 31, 2024

Derivative Instruments and Hedging Activity

Derivative Instruments and Hedging Activity

Note 8 – Derivative Instruments and Hedging Activity

Background

The Company is exposed to certain risks arising from both its business operations and economic conditions. The Company principally manages its exposures to a wide variety of business and operational risks through management of its core business activities. The Company manages economic risk, including interest rate, liquidity and credit risk primarily by managing the amount, sources and duration of its debt funding and, to a limited extent, the use of derivative instruments. For additional information regarding the leveling of the Company’s derivatives, refer to Note 9 – Fair Value Measurements.

The Company’s objective in using interest rate derivatives is to manage its exposure to interest rate movements and add stability to interest expense. To accomplish this objective, the Company uses interest rate swaps as part of its interest rate risk management strategy. Interest rate swaps designated as cash flow hedges involve the receipt of variable rate amounts from a counterparty in exchange for the Company making fixed rate payments over the life of the agreement without exchange of the underlying notional amount.

2023 Hedge Activity

In June 2023, the Company entered into $350.0 million of forward starting interest rate swap agreements to hedge against variability in future cash flows resulting from changes in SOFR. The swaps exchange variable rate SOFR interest on $350.0 million of SOFR indexed debt to a weighted average fixed interest rate of 3.57% beginning August 1, 2023 through the maturity date of January 1, 2029. The swaps are designated to hedge the variable rate interest payments of the 2029 Unsecured Term Loan indexed to SOFR. As of March 31, 2024, these interest rate swaps were valued as net assets of approximately $5.7 million.  

In December 2023, the Company entered into $150.0 million of forward-starting interest rate swap agreements to hedge against changes in future cash flows resulting from changes in SOFR. The swaps exchange variable rate SOFR interest on $150.0 million of SOFR indexed debt to a weighted average fixed interest rate of 3.60% beginning December 31, 2024 through the maturity date of December 31, 2034. The swaps are designated to hedge previously unhedged variable rate interest payments indexed to SOFR. As of March 31, 2024, these interest rate swaps were valued as net assets of approximately $1.4 million.

Recognition

The Company recognizes all derivative instruments as either assets or liabilities at fair value on the balance sheet. The Company recognizes its derivatives within other assets, net and accounts payable, accrued expenses and other liabilities on the condensed consolidated balance sheets.

The Company recognizes all changes in fair value for hedging instruments designated and qualifying for cash flow hedge accounting treatment as a component of other comprehensive income (OCI).

Accumulated OCI relates to (i) the change in fair value of interest rate derivatives and (ii) realized gains or losses on settled derivative instruments. Amounts are reclassified out of accumulated OCI as an adjustment to interest expense for (i) realized gains or losses related to effective interest rate swaps and (ii) realized gains or losses on settled derivative instruments, amortized over the term of the hedged debt transaction. During the next twelve months, the Company estimates that an additional $7.2 million will be reclassified as a decrease to interest expense.

The Company had the following outstanding interest rate derivatives that were designated as cash flow hedges of interest rate risk (presented in thousands, except number of instruments):

	Number of Instruments 1		Notional Amount1
	March 31,	December 31,	March 31,		December 31,
Interest Rate Derivatives	2024	2023	2024		2023
Interest rate swaps	6	6	$	500,000	$	500,000

(1) Number of Instruments and total Notional Amount disclosed includes all interest rate swap agreements outstanding at the balance sheet date, including forward-starting swaps prior to their effective date.

The table below presents the estimated fair value of the Company’s derivative financial instruments, as well as their classification in the condensed consolidated balance sheets (presented in thousands).

	Asset Derivatives
	March 31, 2024		December 31, 2023
Derivatives designated as cash flow hedges:
Other Assets, net	$	7,095	$	—

	Liability Derivatives
	March 31, 2024		December 31, 2023
Derivatives designated as cash flow hedges:
Accounts Payable, Accrued Expenses, and Other Liabilities	$	53	$	4,501

The table below presents the effect of the Company’s derivative financial instruments in the condensed consolidated statements of operations and other comprehensive income for the three months ended March 31, 2024 and 2023 (presented in thousands).

	Amount of Income/(Loss)				Location of Accumulated OCI	Amount Reclassified from
	Recognized in				Reclassified from Accumulated	Accumulated OCI as a
	OCI on Derivative				OCI into Income	(Reduction)/Increase in Interest Expense
Three Months Ended March 31,	2024		2023			2024		2023
Interest rate swaps	$	13,092	$	—	Interest expense	$	(2,178)	$	(629)

The Company does not use derivative instruments for trading or other speculative purposes and did not have any other derivative instruments or hedging activities as of March 31, 2024.

Credit-Risk-Related Contingent Features

The Company has agreements with its derivative counterparties that contain a provision where the Company could be declared in default on its derivative obligations if repayment of the underlying indebtedness is accelerated by the lender due to the Company’s default on the indebtedness.

Although the derivative contracts are subject to master netting arrangements, which serve as credit mitigants to both the Company and its counterparties under certain situations, the Company does not net its derivative fair values or any existing rights or obligations to cash collateral on the condensed consolidated balance sheets.

As of March 31, 2024 and December 31, 2023, the fair value of derivatives related to these agreements, which includes interest but excludes any adjustment for nonperformance risk, was a net asset position of $7.6 million and a net liability position of $4.1 million, respectively. There was no offsetting of derivative assets or liabilities as of March 31, 2024 and December 31, 2023.