DERIVATIVE INSTRUMENTS AND HEDGING ACTIVITIES

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2020

Derivative Instruments and Hedging Activities Disclosure [Abstract]

DERIVATIVE INSTRUMENTS AND HEDGING ACTIVITIES

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.

Specifically, the Company has entered into derivative instruments to manage exposures that arise from business activities that result in the payment of future known and uncertain cash amounts, the value of which are determined by interest rates. The Company's derivative instruments, described below, are used to manage differences in the amount, timing and duration of the Company's known or expected cash payments principally related to certain of the Company's borrowings.

The Company's objective in using interest rate derivatives is to change variable interest rates to fixed interest rates by using interest rate swaps. 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 agreements without exchange of the underlying notional amount.

As of December 31, 2020, EastGroup had five interest rate swaps outstanding, all of which are used to hedge the variable cash flows associated with unsecured loans. All of the Company's interest rate swaps convert the related loans' LIBOR rate components to effectively fixed interest rates, and the Company has concluded that each of the hedging relationships is highly effective.

The changes in the fair value of derivatives designated and qualifying as cash flow hedges is recorded in Other comprehensive income (loss) and is subsequently reclassified into earnings through interest expense as interest payments are made in the period that the hedged forecasted transaction affects earnings.

Amounts reported in Accumulated other comprehensive income (loss) related to derivatives will be reclassified to Interest expense as interest payments are made or received on the Company's variable rate debt. The Company estimates that an additional $4,026,000 will be reclassified from Accumulated other comprehensive income (loss) as an increase to Interest expense over the next twelve months.

The Company's valuation methodology for over-the-counter (“OTC”) derivatives is to discount cash flows based on Overnight Index Swap (“OIS”) rates. Uncollateralized or partially-collateralized trades are discounted at OIS rates, but include appropriate economic adjustments for funding costs (i.e., a LIBOR-OIS basis adjustment to approximate uncollateralized cost of funds) and credit risk. The Company calculates its derivative values using mid-market prices.

In July 2017, the Financial Conduct Authority (“FCA”) that regulates LIBOR announced it intends to stop compelling banks to submit rates for the calculation of LIBOR after 2021. The Alternative Reference Rates Committee (“ARRC”) has proposed that the Secured Overnight Financing Rate (“SOFR”) is the rate that represents best practice as the alternative to USD-LIBOR for use in derivatives and other financial contracts that are currently indexed to USD-LIBOR. ARRC has proposed a paced market transition plan to SOFR from USD-LIBOR and organizations are currently working on industry wide and company specific transition plans as it relates to derivatives and cash markets exposed to USD-LIBOR. In November 2020, the Intercontinental Exchange (“ICE”) Benchmark Administration Limited (“IBA”), the administrator of LIBOR, announced that it would consult on its intention to cease the publication of the one-week and two-month USD LIBOR settings immediately following December 31, 2021, and the remaining USD LIBOR settings immediately following the LIBOR publication on June 30, 2023.

The Company is not able to predict when LIBOR will cease to be available or when there will be sufficient liquidity in the SOFR markets. Any changes adopted by the FCA or other governing bodies in the method used for determining LIBOR may result in a sudden or prolonged increase or decrease in reported LIBOR. If that were to occur, our interest payments could change. In addition, uncertainty about the extent and manner of future changes may result in interest rates and/or payments that are higher or lower than if LIBOR were to remain available in its current form. The Company has material contracts that are indexed to USD-LIBOR and is monitoring this activity and evaluating the related risks.

In March 2020, the FASB issued ASU 2020-04, Reference Rate Reform (Topic 848): Facilitation of the Effects of Reference Rate Reform on Financial Reporting. ASU 2020-04 contains practical expedients for reference rate reform related activities that impact debt, leases, derivatives and other contracts. The guidance in ASU 2020-04 is optional and may be elected over time as reference rate reform activities occur. During 2020, the Company elected to apply the hedge accounting expedients related to probability and the assessments of effectiveness for future LIBOR-indexed cash flows to assume that the index upon which future hedged transactions will be based matches the index on the corresponding derivatives. Application of these expedients preserves the presentation of derivatives consistent with past presentation. The Company continues to evaluate the impact of the guidance and may apply other elections as applicable as additional changes in the market occur.

As of December 31, 2020 and 2019, the Company had the following outstanding interest rate derivatives that are designated as cash flow hedges of interest rate risk:


Interest Rate Derivative	Notional Amount as of December 31, 2020	Notional Amount as of December 31, 2019
	(In thousands)
Interest Rate Swap	$75,000	$75,000
Interest Rate Swap	$65,000	$65,000
Interest Rate Swap	—	$60,000
Interest Rate Swap	$40,000	$40,000
Interest Rate Swap	—	$15,000
Interest Rate Swap	$100,000	$100,000
Interest Rate Swap	$100,000	—

The table below presents the fair value of the Company's derivative financial instruments as well as their classification on the Consolidated Balance Sheets as of December 31, 2020 and 2019. See Note 18 for additional information on the fair value of the Company's interest rate swaps.

Derivatives
As of December 31, 2020

Derivatives
As of December 31, 2019

Balance Sheet Location

Fair Value

Balance Sheet Location

Fair Value

(In thousands)

Derivatives designated as cash flow hedges:

Interest rate swap assets

Other assets

—

Other assets

3,485

Interest rate swap liabilities

Other liabilities

10,752

Other liabilities

678

The table below presents the effect of the Company's derivative financial instruments on the Consolidated Statements of Income and Comprehensive Income for the years ended December 31, 2020, 2019 and 2018:


	Years Ended December 31,
	2020		2019	2018
	(In thousands)
DERIVATIVES IN CASH FLOW HEDGING RELATIONSHIPS
Interest Rate Swaps:
Amount of income (loss) recognized in Other comprehensive income (loss) on derivatives	$	(17,364)	(1,975)	2,757
Amount of (income) loss reclassified from Accumulated other comprehensive income (loss) into Interest expense	3,805		(1,919)	(1,404)

See Note 12 for additional information on the Company's Accumulated other comprehensive income (loss) resulting from its interest rate swaps.

Derivative financial agreements expose the Company to credit risk in the event of non-performance by the counterparties under the terms of the interest rate hedge agreements. The Company believes it minimizes the credit risk by transacting with financial institutions the Company regards as credit-worthy.

The Company has an agreement with its derivative counterparties containing a provision stating that the Company could be declared in default on its derivative obligations if the Company defaults on any of its indebtedness, including default where repayment of the indebtedness has not been accelerated by the lender. If the Company breached any of these provisions it would be required to settle its obligations under the agreements at their termination value of $10,928,000 as of December 31, 2020.