Fair Value Disclosures

12 Months Ended

Dec. 27, 2014

As of December 27, 2014 the carrying values of cash and cash equivalents, short-term investments, accounts receivable and accounts payable approximated their fair values because of the short-term nature of these instruments. The fair value of notes receivable net of allowances and lease guarantees less subsequent amortization approximates their carrying value. The Company’s debt obligations, excluding capital leases, were estimated to have a fair value of $3.4 billion (Level 2), compared to their carrying value of $3.2 billion. We estimated the fair value of debt using market quotes and calculations based on market rates.

Recurring Fair Value Measurements

The Company has interest rate swaps accounted for as fair value hedges, foreign currency forwards accounted for as cash flow hedges and other investments, all of which are required to be measured at fair value on a recurring basis. Interest rate swaps are used to reduce our exposure to interest rate risk and lower interest expense for a portion of our fixed-rate debt and our interest rate swaps meet the shortcut method requirements and thus no ineffectiveness has been recorded. Our foreign currency forwards are used to reduce our exposure to cash flow volatility arising from foreign currency fluctuations associated with certain foreign currency denominated intercompany short-term receivables and payables. The notional amount, maturity date and currency of these forwards match those of the underlying receivables or payables and we measure ineffectiveness by comparing the cumulative change in the fair value of the forward contract with the cumulative change in the fair value of the hedged item. The following table presents fair values for those assets and liabilities measured at fair value on a recurring basis and the level within the fair value hierarchy in which the measurements fall. No transfers among the levels within the fair value hierarchy occurred during the years ended December 27, 2014 or December 28, 2013.



	Fair Value
	Level	2014		2013
Foreign Currency Forwards, net	2	$	24	$	1
Interest Rate Swaps, net	2	10		17
Other Investments	1	21		18
Total		$	55	$	36

The fair value of the Company’s foreign currency forwards and interest rate swaps were determined based on the present value of expected future cash flows considering the risks involved, including nonperformance risk, and using discount rates appropriate for the duration based upon observable inputs. The other investments include investments in mutual funds, which are used to offset fluctuations in deferred compensation liabilities that employees have chosen to invest in phantom shares of a Stock Index Fund or Bond Index Fund. The other investments are classified as trading securities in Other assets in our Consolidated Balance Sheet and their fair value is determined based on the closing market prices of the respective mutual funds as of December 27, 2014 and December 28, 2013.

Non-Recurring Fair Value Measurements

The following table presents expense recognized from all non-recurring fair value measurements during the years ended December 27, 2014 and December 28, 2013. These amounts relate to restaurants or groups of restaurants that were impaired either as a result of our semi-annual impairment review or when it was more likely than not a restaurant or restaurant group would be refranchised and exclude fair value measurements made for restaurants that were subsequently closed or refranchised prior to those respective year-end dates.



	2014		2013
Little Sheep impairment (Level 3)^(a)	$	463	$	295
Refranchising related impairment - other (Level 2)^(b)	9		—
Restaurant-level impairment (Level 3)^(c)	46		19
Total	$	518	$	314

(a) See the Little Sheep Acquisition and Subsequent Impairment section of Note 4 for further discussion.

(b)

Refranchising related impairment results from writing down the assets of restaurants or restaurant groups offered for refranchising, including certain instances where a decision has been made to refranchise restaurants that are deemed to be impaired. The fair value measurements used in our impairment evaluation are based on either actual bids received from potential buyers (Level 2), or on estimates of the sales prices we anticipated receiving from a buyer for the restaurant or restaurant groups (Level 3). The remaining net book value of these restaurants at December 27, 2014 is insignificant.

(c)

Restaurant-level impairment charges are recorded in Closures and impairment (income) expenses and resulted primarily from our semi-annual impairment evaluation of long-lived assets of individual restaurants that were being operated at the time of impairment and had not been offered for refranchising. The fair value measurements used in these impairment evaluations were based on discounted cash flow estimates using unobservable inputs (Level 3). The remaining net book value of assets measured at fair value during the years ended December 27, 2014 and December 28, 2013 is insignificant.

- Definition

The entire disclosure for the fair value of financial instruments (as defined), including financial assets and financial liabilities (collectively, as defined), and the measurements of those instruments as well as disclosures related to the fair value of non-financial assets and liabilities. Such disclosures about the financial instruments, assets, and liabilities would include: (1) the fair value of the required items together with their carrying amounts (as appropriate); (2) for items for which it is not practicable to estimate fair value, disclosure would include: (a) information pertinent to estimating fair value (including, carrying amount, effective interest rate, and maturity, and (b) the reasons why it is not practicable to estimate fair value; (3) significant concentrations of credit risk including: (a) information about the activity, region, or economic characteristics identifying a concentration, (b) the maximum amount of loss the entity is exposed to based on the gross fair value of the related item, (c) policy for requiring collateral or other security and information as to accessing such collateral or security, and (d) the nature and brief description of such collateral or security; (4) quantitative information about market risks and how such risks are managed; (5) for items measured on both a recurring and nonrecurring basis information regarding the inputs used to develop the fair value measurement; and (6) for items presented in the financial statement for which fair value measurement is elected: (a) information necessary to understand the reasons for the election, (b) discussion of the effect of fair value changes on earnings, (c) a description of [similar groups] items for which the election is made and the relation thereof to the balance sheet, the aggregate carrying value of items included in the balance sheet that are not eligible for the election; (7) all other required (as defined) and desired information.

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