Asset Retirement Obligations

9 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2016

(9) Asset Retirement Obligations

Asset retirement obligations consist primarily of costs to deinstall the Company’s ATMs and restore the ATM sites to their original condition, which are estimated based on current market rates. In most cases, the Company is contractually required to perform this deinstallation and in some cases, site restoration work. For each group of similar ATM type, the Company has recognized the estimated fair value of the asset retirement obligation as a liability on its balance sheet and capitalized that cost as part of the cost basis of the related asset. The related assets are depreciated on a straight-line basis over five years, which is the estimated average time period that an ATM is installed in a location before being deinstalled, and the related liabilities are accreted to their full value over the same period of time.

The following table presents the changes in the Company’s asset retirement obligation liability for the nine months ended September 30, 2016 (in thousands):



Balance as of January 1, 2016	$	54,727
Additional obligations		6,020
Accretion expense		1,359
Change in estimates		(69)
Payments		(2,771)
Foreign currency translation adjustments		(3,092)
Balance as of September 30, 2016		56,174
Less: current portion		8,978
Balance as of September 30, 2016, excluding current portion	$	47,196

See Note 12. Fair Value Measurements for additional disclosures on the Company’s asset retirement obligations with respect to its fair value measurements.