DERIVATIVE INSTRUMENTS AND HEDGING ACTIVITIES

3 Months Ended

Mar. 31, 2022

DERIVATIVE INSTRUMENTS AND HEDGING ACTIVITIES [Abstract]

Derivative Instruments and Hedging Activities Disclosure [Text Block]

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 March 31, 2022, the Company 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 or SOFR 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 are recorded in Other comprehensive income and are subsequently reclassified into earnings through Interest expense as interest payments are made or received on the Company’s variable-rate debt in the period that the hedged forecasted transaction affects earnings. The Company estimates that an additional $2,352,000 will be reclassified from Other comprehensive income as a decrease 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 valuations using mid-market prices.

In July 2017, the Financial Conduct Authority announced it intended to stop compelling banks to submit rates for the calculation of LIBOR after 2021. In March 2021, the ICE Benchmark Administration, the administrator of LIBOR, announced its intention to cease publication of certain LIBOR settings after 2021, while continuing to publish overnight and one-, three-, six-, and twelve-month U.S. dollar LIBOR rates through June 30, 2023. While this announcement extended the transition period to June 2023, the United States Federal Reserve Board and other regulatory bodies concurrently issued guidance encouraging banks and other financial market participants to cease entering into new contracts that use U.S. dollar LIBOR as a reference rate as soon as practicable and in any event no later than December 31, 2021. In the U.S., the Alternative Reference Rates Committee, which was convened by the Federal Reserve Board and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, has recommended that SOFR plus a recommended spread adjustment as its preferred alternative to USD-LIBOR. There are significant differences between LIBOR and SOFR, such as LIBOR being an unsecured lending rate while SOFR is a secured rate, and SOFR is an overnight rate while LIBOR reflects term rates at different maturities.

We expect that all LIBOR settings relevant to us will cease to be published or will no longer be representative after June 30, 2023. As a result, any of our LIBOR-based borrowings that extend beyond such date will need to be converted to a replacement rate. Certain risks may arise in connection with transitioning contracts to SOFR or any other alternative variable rate, including any resulting value transfer that may occur. The value of loans, securities, or derivative instruments tied to LIBOR could also be impacted. During the three months ended March 31, 2022, the Company entered into a new term loan and related swap which are both indexed to SOFR. Also, during the three months ended March 31, 2022, EastGroup refinanced an existing term loan modifying the index from LIBOR to SOFR, and concurrently amended the related swap to reference SOFR rather than LIBOR. The Company’s unsecured bank credit facilities and three of its senior unsecured term loans and interest rate swap contracts are indexed to LIBOR and include provisions for a replacement rate which we believe will be substantially equivalent to the all-in LIBOR-based interest rate in effect prior to its replacement. Therefore, management believes the transition will not have a material impact on the Company’s consolidated financial statements. The Company is continuously monitoring and evaluating the related risks, which include interest on loans and amounts received and paid on derivative instruments. These risks arise in connection with transitioning contracts to a new alternative rate, including any resulting value transfer that may occur. The value of loans or derivative instruments indexed to LIBOR could also be impacted if LIBOR is limited or discontinued as interest rates may be adversely affected. While we expect LIBOR to be available in substantially its current form until June 30, 2023, it is possible that LIBOR will become unavailable prior to that point. This could result, for example, if sufficient banks decline to make submissions to the LIBOR administrator. In that case, the risks associated with the transition to an alternative reference rate will be accelerated and magnified.

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. 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 March 31, 2022 and December 31, 2021, 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 March 31, 2022	Notional Amount as of December 31, 2021
	(In thousands)
Interest Rate Swap	—	$75,000
Interest Rate Swap	$65,000	$65,000
Interest Rate Swap	$100,000	$100,000
Interest Rate Swap	$100,000	$100,000
Interest Rate Swap	$50,000	$50,000
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 March 31, 2022 and December 31, 2021. See Note 17 for additional information on the fair value of the Company’s interest rate swaps.

	Derivatives As of March 31, 2022			Derivatives As of December 31, 2021
	Balance Sheet Location	Fair Value		Balance Sheet Location	Fair Value
	(In thousands)
Derivatives designated as cash flow hedges:
Interest rate swap assets	Other assets	$	17,130	Other assets	$	2,237
Interest rate swap liabilities	Other liabilities	—		Other liabilities	935

The table below presents the effect of the Company’s derivative financial instruments on the Consolidated Statements of Income and Comprehensive Income for the three months ended March 31, 2022 and 2021:

	Three Months Ended March 31,
	2022		2021
	(In thousands)
DERIVATIVES IN CASH FLOW HEDGING RELATIONSHIPS
Interest Rate Swaps:
Amount of income recognized in Other comprehensive income on derivatives	$	14,952	7,163
Amount of (income) loss reclassified from Accumulated other comprehensive income (loss) into Interest expense	876		1,051

See Note 13 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 $17,248,000 as of March 31, 2022.