Acquisition of Sebree aluminum smelter (Policies)

9 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2013

Allocating the purchase price to the acquired assets and liabilities involves management judgment. We allocated the purchase price to the assets acquired, liabilities assumed, and the bargain gain in accordance with Accounting Standards Codification ("ASC") 805 "Business Combinations." Once it has been determined that recognition of an asset or liability in a business combination is appropriate, we measure the asset or liability at fair value in accordance with the principles of ASC 820 "Fair Value Measurements and Disclosures." Fair value is the price that would be received to sell an asset or paid to transfer a liability in an orderly transaction between market participants at the measurement date.

The determination of the fair value of certain intangible assets and/or liabilities requires management judgment in each of the following areas:


•	Identifying the acquired intangible assets or liabilities. In the case of the Sebree acquisition, we assumed a power contract liability as the contracted power price was in excess of current market prices.

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Estimating the fair value of the intangible assets and/or liabilities. We consider various approaches to value the acquired intangible assets and/or liabilities. These valuation approaches include the cost approach, which measures the value of an asset based on the cost to reproduce it or replace it with a like asset; the market approach, which values the asset through an analysis of sales and offerings of comparable assets; and the income approach, which measures the value of an asset (or liability) by measuring the present worth of the economic benefits (or costs) it is expected to produce.

- Definition

Disclosure of accounting policy for completed business combinations (purchase method, acquisition method or combination of entities under common control). This accounting policy may include a general discussion of the purchase method or acquisition method of accounting (including for example, the treatment accorded contingent consideration, the identification of assets and liabilities, the purchase price allocation process, how the fair values of acquired assets and liabilities are determined) and the entity's specific application thereof. An entity that acquires another entity in a leveraged buyout transaction generally discloses the accounting policy followed by the acquiring entity in determining the basis used to value its interest in the acquired entity, and the rationale for that accounting policy.

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