9. DISTRIBUTIONS OF AVAILABLE CASH

We distribute 100% of our available cash (including any held by our consolidated subsidiaries) within 50 days after the end of each quarter to unitholders of record. Available cash is generally defined in the partnership agreement as all cash and cash equivalents of AHGP and its subsidiaries on hand at the end of each quarter less reserves established by AGP in its reasonable discretion for future cash requirements. These reserves are retained to provide for the conduct of our business, the payment of debt principal and interest and to provide funds for future distributions.

Our cash generating assets currently consist entirely of our partnership interests in ARLP, from which we receive quarterly cash distributions. At December 31, 2017, our assets consisted of the following partnership interests in ARLP: a 1.0001% general partner interest in the Intermediate Partnership, which we hold through our 100% indirect ownership interest in MGP; 87,188,338 common units of ARLP, representing approximately 66.7% of the common units of ARLP; and a 0.001% managing interest in Alliance Coal which we hold through our 100% indirect ownership interest in MGP.

The following table summarizes the quarterly per unit distribution paid during the respective quarter:


	Year
	2017		2016		2015
First Quarter	$	0.5500	$	0.9600	$	0.9150
Second Quarter	$	0.5500	$	0.5500	$	0.9375
Third Quarter	$	0.7300	$	0.5500	$	0.9600
Fourth Quarter	$	0.7350	$	0.5500	$	0.9600

On January 26, 2018, we declared a quarterly distribution of $0.7425 per unit, totaling approximately $45.1 million, which was paid on February 20, 2018, to all unitholders of record on February 13, 2018.