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 term of the agreements without exchange of the underlying notional amount.

As of December 31, 2024, EastGroup had six 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’ Term 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 (loss) 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 $9,821,000 will be reclassified from Other comprehensive income (loss) 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 SOFR market data. Uncollateralized or partially-collateralized trades include appropriate economic adjustments for funding costs and credit risk. The Company calculates its derivative valuations using mid-market prices.

As of December 31, 2024 and 2023, the Company had the following outstanding interest rate derivatives that are designated as cash flow hedges of interest rate risk:


NOTIONAL VALUE OF INTEREST RATE DERIVATIVES	December 31, 2024		December 31, 2023
	(In thousands)
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		100,000
Interest Rate Swap	75,000		75,000
Interest Rate Swap	—		50,000
Interest Rate Swap	100,000		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 December 31, 2024 and 2023. See Note 16 for additional information on the fair value of the Company’s interest rate swaps.


DERIVATIVES DESIGNATED AS CASH FLOW HEDGES AT FAIR VALUE		December 31, 2024		December 31, 2023
	(In thousands)
Interest rate swap assets (1)		$	21,953	27,366
Interest rate swap liabilities (2)		—		2,478

The table below presents the effect of the Company’s derivative financial instruments (interest rate swaps) on the Consolidated Statements of Income and Comprehensive Income for the years ended December 31, 2024, 2023 and 2022:


	Years Ended December 31,
DERIVATIVES IN CASH FLOW HEDGING RELATIONSHIPS	2024		2023	2022
	(In thousands)
Amount of income recognized in Other comprehensive income (loss) on derivatives	$	14,869	6,319	37,563
Amount of (income) loss reclassified from Accumulated other comprehensive income into Interest expense	(17,804)		(17,802)	(2,494)

See Note 11 for additional information on the Company’s Accumulated other comprehensive income 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. As of December 31, 2024, we had not posted any collateral related to these agreements and were not in breach of any of the provisions of these agreements. If the Company had breached any of these provisions, it would be required to settle its obligations under the agreements at their termination value.