(7)

Bank Loan

The Company has an outstanding bank loan with U.S. Bank National Association, as administrative agent (in such capacity, “Agent”) and as a lender, and California Bank & Trust, as syndication agent and as a lender, which replaced and refinanced the bank loan previously entered into by the Company and U.S. Bank on October 26, 2012, and amended on November 1, 2013. Immediately prior to September 17, 2015, the Company’s outstanding bank loan with U.S. Bank National Association had a principal balance of $23.0 million. On September 17, 2015, in anticipation of the repurchase of up to 1,000,000 shares of the Company’s common stock at $25 per share pursuant to its self-tender offer, the Company entered into the new term loan agreement to fund in part its self-tender offer, thereby increasing its total loan balance to $35.0 million (consisting of a $20.0 million promissory note to U.S. Bank National Association and a $15.0 million promissory note to California Bank & Trust). Then, on September 19, 2016, the Company entered into an amendment to its term loan agreement with the Agent and the lenders to allow it to consummate the purchase of assets related to the management of the Westport Fund and the Westport Select Cap Fund. In addition, the amendment revised one of the financial covenants in the term loan agreement.

The current term loan agreement requires 48 monthly payments in the amount of $364,583 plus interest, at our option, at either:

(1) LIBOR plus a margin that ranges from 2.75% to 3.25%, depending on Hennessy Advisors’ ratio of consolidated debt to consolidated earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (excluding, among other things, certain non-cash gains and losses) (“EBITDA”), or

(2) the sum of (a) the highest of the prime rate set by U.S. Bank from time to time, the Federal Funds Rate plus 0.50%, or one-month LIBOR plus 1.00%, and (b) a margin that ranges from 0.25% to 0.75%, depending on the Company’s ratio of consolidated debt to consolidated EBITDA.

From the effective date of the current term loan agreement through February 29, 2016, the interest rate in effect was U.S. Bank’s prime rate plus a margin. The applicable margin was initially 0.75% and then decreased to 0.5% as of January 21, 2016, based on the Company’s ratio of consolidated debt to consolidated EBITDA as of December 31, 2015. This margin decrease reduced the effective interest rate on the term loan from 4.25% to 4.0%. Effective March 1, 2016, the Company converted $32.8 million of its principal loan balance to a 1-month LIBOR contract, which has been renewed each subsequent month. As of September 30, 2016, the effective rate is 3.52322%, which is comprised of the LIBOR rate of 0.52322% as of September 1, 2016, plus a margin of 3.0% based on the Company’s ratio of consolidated debt to consolidated EBITDA as of June 30, 2016. The Company intends to renew the 1-month LIBOR contract on a monthly basis provided that the LIBOR based interest rate remains favorable to the prime rate based interest rate.

All borrowings under the term loan agreement are secured by substantially all of the Company’s assets. The final installment of the then-outstanding principal and interest is due September 17, 2019. The note maturity schedule is as follows:


Years ended September 30:
	(In thousands)
2017	$	4,375
2018		4,375
2019		21,875

Total	$	30,625

The previous amended loan agreement included, and the current term loan agreement includes, certain reporting requirements and loan covenants requiring the maintenance of certain financial ratios. The Company was in compliance for the fiscal years ended September 30, 2016 and 2015.

The Company did an evaluation of the debt modification and determined that the portion of the loan refinanced with the same creditor (the $20.0 million with U.S. Bank National Association) is not considered “substantially different” from the original loan with U.S. Bank National Association per the conditions set forth in ASC 470-50 — Debt; Modifications and Extinguishments. Furthermore, due to the variable nature of the interest rate, this feature of the loan was examined for potential bifurcation as an embedded derivative, and it was determined that the feature does not require bifurcation from the host contract.

In connection with securing the financings discussed above, the Company incurred loan costs in the amount of $0.41 million. These costs are included in other assets and the balance is being amortized on a straight-line basis over 48 months. Amortization expense during the fiscal year ended September 30, 2016 was $0.15 million compared to $0.09 million for the prior comparable period. Future amortization expense is as follows:


Years ended September 30:
	(In thousands)
2017	$	147
2018		147
2019		146

Total	$	440